Photo: Quaker volunteers at the Greenbelt Festival.
Quakers at Greenbelt
Quaker volunteers had a presence at the Greenbelt festival in August
Nearly 500 people visited the Quaker Arts Network (QAN) gazebo at the Greenbelt Festival this summer, with 200 attending Meeting for Worship.
Overall, around 10,500 people attended this year’s festival in Boughton House near Kettering, Northamptonshire.
Now in its fifty-first year, the packed festival line-up included Corinne Bailey Rae, a Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter; Bob Vylan, a grime hip-hop duo; and Lady Unchained, a poet, performer and criminal justice activist.
Andrew O’Hanlon, from Winchester Meeting, and one of the volunteers, told the Friend: ‘In spite of blustery wind and rain dampening parts of the programme this year, Greenbelt 2024 was an excellent festival with lots of sunny intervals.’
Focussing on ‘games, doodling, Loving Earth panel-making, and a slideshow of images inspired by Advices & queries’, the gazebo provided ‘a Quaker centre for the festival, and the feedback we got from the Quaker curious was overwhelmingly positive,’ said Andrew. ‘There was a short but joyous epilogue in the Wild Goose tent (run by the Iona Community). Our presence was thanks to the support of the Quaker Arts Network, Northants Area Meeting and many other Meetings that contributed to the costs of the dozen or so members of the core team.’
‘Should there be a next time,’ added Andrew. ‘I hope Quakers would have a bigger profile; be more integrated in the festival as a whole; simplify the offer in the gazebo; and share spaces with a variety of other organisations. It was QAN’s first year and we would love to know what other Quakers who attend Greenbelt regularly made of our presence.’
The Loving Earth Project textiles exhibition and QAN’s workshops received ‘great feedback’, said Linda Murgatroyd, co-founder of QAN. ‘We really had some great chats and activities at the QAN gazebo. It was particularly lovely to have visits from people who now go to Quaker Meetings but had first come across us at previous Greenbelts. I was also accosted by a local vicar who had been to the big Quaker Meeting for Worship. He had been given a copy of Advices & queries and, having looked through it, was going to use it as the basis for a discussion group in his church!’
The team of Quaker volunteers travelled from Southampton, Lancaster, Bristol, Cambridge and London, and included Britain Yearly Meeting staff. (See ‘Somewhere to believe in’, 6 September).
Comments
It’s good to see the Greenbelt festival is still going. Over the years it has developed into quite a sophisticated event. Many years ago I actually played at Greenbelt.
It’s also good to see the Quaker presence active and alive at this event, well done Friends.
By Keith Rycroft on 14th September 2024 - 9:50
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