First impressions of Greenbelt

I went to Greenbelt for the day on Monday. I hadn't been before, and thought I'd best pay it a visit sooner or later, what with the years of nagging that I've been subjected to from various friends. It does inspire fanaticism, does Greenbelt. And hatred too. In some churches I've attended I'd have been excommunicated for peeking through the fence. In others people practically burst into song at the mention of its name. All of which is quite intriguing.
So what did I make of it? Well, in my mind it appears to be two festivals crammed into one. The first is a forum for new ideas, for creative approaches to faith and church, and for informed debate and political Christian action, all things lacking in mainstream Christian festivals. Great. The other half, however, is tie-dye shirted irrelevance. You have these two things going on side by side, interesting conversations competing, quite literally, with spontaneous drumming sessions. I feel like I’ve been to two festivals.

The bad news first - sadly, the hippy half seems to be doing much of the art side of the festival. I was looking forward to seeing some good art, and aside from a disturbing (in a good way) exhibition on self harm, there wasn’t much to see. Most of the ‘art’ seemed to be primary coloured banners tied to trees, rainbow windmills, that sort of thing, a little disappointing for something that bills itself as an arts festival.

The ones in the hemp clothing are also running the site. The Greenbelt ‘vibe’ is something people really wax lyrical about, but to me the overall atmosphere was just willfully odd. Perhaps it’s just me, but I’m always a little suspicious of people in crazy hats. Trying to be different, or anything that’s alternative for the sake of being alternative, is usually a futile exercise, and being ‘zany’ is often a poor excuse for genuinely being your own person. (I saw a Volkswagen van in the car park with ‘make love not war’ painted on it. Surely, that’s gone beyond irony and well into farce by now) So if it were up to me, there’d be less of the dreadlocked vegan elements, though I’m sure fans of the festival will disagree. But that was just my impression as a new comer, and I was only there for one day…

The good news is that the other half of the festival was great. Where other gatherings have central ‘teaching tracks’ and main meetings, here you have dozens of things to choose from in any given hour. It’s a festival that recognizes that each person has their own interests and passions, and that everyone is on their own journey with God. We don’t all need the same truth download. You can choose what you want to feed your mind with, and no one is assuming that we all need to hear the same thing. If you need milk, there’s milk. If you want meat, it’s like a South African barbecue. There are poets and novelists, MPs, pacifists, thinkers and philosophers. Yes, there are Bible teachers too, and worship leaders. There are filmmakers and programme commissioners. There was a Muslim there, not to debate, but to talk about his conversion to Islam. Draw your own conclusions. There are bishops and social workers, charity workers and asylum seekers, ecologists and environmentalists. There was a talk on The Da Vinci Code, again, but we won’t hold that against them.

There are dozens of issues here that the church in this country needs to be talking about. There are far too many Christians who aren’t engaging in serious conversation about the environment or social action, because they’re too busy fretting about whether everyone’s got a sound understanding of Romans. Unfortunately those people won’t ever go to Greenbelt. Like so many things, the festival is bound to appeal least to the people who need it most, and that’s a real shame.

In short, I’m not entirely converted to the Greenbelt cause, but it’s still the only Christian festival I’d ever want to go to.