The Ideal Home
I can't decide whether Greenbelt's Dreams of Home theme has felt like a ray of light or a punch in the stomach. It seems most people, including fellow bloggers, have been a-grappling with it. I'm still mid-grapple. About six months ago, my husband and I (I always feel like the Queen when I say that) left our [...]
Christian Celebrity Deathmatch: MLK Vs. Mother Teresa
"haaaaaaailing from Atlanta, GA and weighing in at twoooooo hundred and twooooo pounds and one ounce; in the bluuuuuuue corner, sporting the white shorts with the gold trim, please welcome: the Baptist brawler, the Civil Rrrrrrights rrrrrrinser, 'King of the Ring' – Dr Martin Luther King Juuuuuuuniorrrrrrr. his opponent, fighting out of Kolkata, India and [...]
A Mooting of Minds
Everyone has their own Greenbelt tactic. Or at least returnees do. For once you are called out of the initial chaos of trying to see absolutely everything, you gradually begin to realise that being selective and strategic is your best ticket to festival success. I’ll admit it; I’m a bit of a controversy junkie and [...]
And So the End Is Near…
So, I've been set the unenviable task of summing up the whole my Greenbelt experience, in one post. I'll try to keep it short and sweet. Despite the temperamental weather (which I'm not really entitled to complain about as I cheated this year and didn't camp), my time at the festival has been unfettered fun [...]
The Duke and Luke
By the time Last Orders comes around, it’s most likely that I’m approaching my soggy and/or haggard mode of being. Alas, long gone are the days where night was just another shade of day and sleep was merely a past time for the bored or needy. Even so, I insist on resisting the diktats of [...]
Lonely Writers' Network
“Greenbelt does it differently” says Ben Whitehouse facilitator of the Greenbelt Writers' Network and one of the guys pulling the strings behind the scenes. Huddled together on the grassy, Friday floor of The Hub was a a crowd of lonely writers – it seemed that even amongst a room full of peers, each individual was [...]
Seaside Adventures in The Playhouse
The Mousehole Cat worked its magic in The Playhouse yesterday. I turned up a little early, rightly anticipating a capacity audience of children and their hangers-on. I'd learnt to be in good time after the crushing disappointment of the day before, when I couldn't get in to see Elmer the Elephant. I sulked for a [...]
A Messy Home
As a long-time Greenbelter, the notion of Greenbelt as home isn't a hard one to take on board. Arrival on site is always accompanied by a sense of homecoming, immediately being surrounded by familiar faces, familiar food, familiar smells. There's something new every year, with new delights in the programme, and around the site, but [...]
Are Facebook Friends Real Friends? The art of deceptive talk titles
[Image by Sean MacEntee] I thought this talk was going to be about Facebook and its huge impact on the relational landscape of our country. It wasn't. Greenbelt speakers, or perhaps programmers, have an incredible knack for coming up with original titles for talks, however I've come to learn that you don't always get what [...]
The Inevitable Rise of The Rising
It says in the Greenbelt guide that some of the best moments of the festival will be those that are unplanned. Turns out the guide was right – today I managed to stumble upon what appeared to be one of the most popular events on the programme and I found the experience both thoroughly enjoyable [...]
