Greenbelt

Photographed

If you're not already bored of photographs of Greenbelt, there are plenty more on Flickr taken by me and many others.

To the left is a selection of mine.

Greenbelt

Souvenirs

Five things I brought back from Greenbelt:

• The Festival Guide
• An advance copy of a yet-to-be-released CD
• A lipstick-print and plectrum
• Five days of memories
• A pair of fairy wings

There are stories associated with these but I'll leave those to your imagination.

Greenbelt

Let's praise

What are these people doing?

1. Drinking beer
2. Singing hymns
3. Drinking beer and singing hymns

If you answered c, you've just stumbled across the formula for many people's "Greenbelt moment" of the year: Beer and Hymns.

You could spot the clergy in the audience. They were the ones scrawling on a scrap of paper: cancel mission concert; serve beer instead.

Greenbelt

The changing years

My friends and I first went to Greenbelt when we were fifteen. Most of us still go - these days with a fair few little people in tow.

Is it any surprise there's a dedicated Children's Festival on site?

Greenbelt

And not forgetting ...

... there's a farm on the campsite.

Greenbelt

Have you heard ... ?

... Greenbelt's got a fantastic new outdoor mainstage.

. .. the Performance Café has grown into a lovely big top.

... Last Orders has quadrupled its capacity and now features stunning music sets.

(We're having a rather wonderful festival.)

Greenbelt

It's glorious

No, seriously. The weather's wonderful today. A little cloud with plenty of sunshine. The ground is soft but not wet; the tent pegs slide in with ease.

A perfect festival day.

Greenbelt

Welcome

Two important meetings this evening. The first is the volunteers welcome: a chance to get as many Greenbelt volunteers together as we can before the main event starts.

Next? A curry with friends. People who rarely get the chance to do this together. Love it.

Greenbelt

Wine for 20,000

A snap from the fringes of the festival: preparing the wine for Sunday morning's service. I hear one deep breath taken in the room while the decanting was in process was enough to put you over the legal limit for driving.

Greenbelt

Breaking the pattern

I'm doing Greenbelt a bit differently this year.

So there's no stone and no pre- and post- festival walks in South Wales. I'll be staying in a tent that's been put up for me and it's the last time I'll attend the festival an unmarried man.

See you there?

Angels , Walks

Shrubland

Got a spare £23 million? The estate that hosts the majority of this walk is on the market.

Distance: 8.45 miles
Ascent: 191 metres
Duration: 2 hours 50 minutes

Walk 21: Barham, Baylham and Coddenham

Shrubland Park is a huge estate, crossed by half a dozen public rights of way. This makes it excellent walking territory, somewhere to enjoy eccentric English aristocratic anachronisms.

Coddenham church with its host of Angels holding up the roof provided a brief detour before heading back into the park. Near Sandy Hill three deer hopped out of the way in front of me. This is the English countryside at its most clichéd. I wouldn't be surprised if the next owner of Shrubland Park encourages its use as a film set.

Angels , Walks

Hedgerow

My companion today has been the hedgerow. It led me across the undulating landscape, then down past the house hidden in the vale. The hedgerow and I switched sides before it momentarily left me to explore the village of Kersey on my own.

Distance: 9.20 miles
Ascent: 240 metres
Duration: 2 hours 42 minutes

Walk 24: Kersey and Lindsey Castle from Hadleigh

Kersey is one of those places best visited on foot. If you drive it's over in a flash of disappointment but the walker gets to see its real charm. It's a single street, punctuated half-way by a ford known as The Splash. I don't think there's a single building here less than two hundred years old. On the side of one house, an ageing round Automobile Association sign urges us to put Safety First.

The hedgerow and I were reunited at the top end of the village. Here an elderly lady was harvesting its fruits, popping one berry in her mouth for every five dropped in the plastic pot. She would be thwarted soon though - half a mile further on, a tractor was heading in her direction trimming the bushes back and releasing a sweet scent into the air.

And everywhere I went, partridges and pheasants darted in front of me startled that anyone else might come so close to their hedgerow home.

Arts , Greenbelt

Music: Yell Fire!

Right now if I close my eyes I could be in the middle of a festival crowd, my chest hit by the rumbling bass, my arms in the air, my soul lifted somewhere higher.

Michael Franti and Spearhead's latest album is just about the only thing I've been listening to since Saturday. Uplifting, demanding, dancing, angry, unforgettable.

Ignore The Observer's attempted assassination of the record. This is perfect festival music. Good job you'll be able to catch them perform live at 2145 a week on Monday isn't it?

Greenbelt

Here comes the weekend

Are you a Greenbelt Angel? If so you can get your hands on a copy of the GB06 Daily Diary right now - before it's even been printed.

As an experiment this year you can pre-order your Festival Guide online, and get a sneak preview of the contents right away.

On the other hand, maybe flicking through the Diary is an integral part of your festival Friday and getting it early would spoil the surprise.

Greenbelt

Under construction

En route to London for the last Management Group meeting of the year, I spotted stages and marquees being erected just south of Chelmsford. The V Festival's being held there next weekend and they've already got the majority of their structures in place.

Tonight the office staff head to our site to begin the final stages of preparation. It's the time when the paperwork begins to make way for the physical - a very exciting time. I'll join them in a little over a week.

Film: Superman Returns

The best bit about Superman Returns: the nods to the 1980s anti-smoking campaign in which Superman battles Nick O'Teen.

The worst bit? Pretty much everything else. The film was visually appealing but totally lacking in substance.

Personal

It's real

The board below my bedroom window is the saddest thing I've seen in a long time.

Yes, it's real. I can hardly believe it.

Arts

Film: Cars

Further evidence that Pixar understand emotion and are able to breathe life into anything. Already my memories of Cars are of people, not inanimate objects. (Is it alright to fancy a Porsche?)

Arts

Film: The Break-Up

With my own wedding a little under two months away, watching a film called The Break-Up might seem a little foolish. But more than a hymn to singleness this is a cautionary tale about communication.

Ignore the reviews lambasting Jennifer Anniston. They're are as worn as the seats in my local multiplex. This is a film worth watching.

Walks

The changing view

Distance: 10.8 miles
Ascent: 152 metres
Duration: 3 hours 31 minutes

Walk 26: Sutton Hoo, Shottisham and the River Deben

I've been putting this walk off. Last time I was here, Nettle Hill nearly defeated me. This time I was prepared, but in the two years since that previous walk things have changed. The stinging nettles are still there - thriving by the side of the river - but a wide path has been cut through them, providing a rather enjoyable walk.

Further on was the moment I was looking forward to. Beneath a huge oak tree I ate my lunch while enjoying my favourite view of my home town.

Even here the scenery is changing. While previously I would have had the place to myself, today I was met by an ex-army vehicle full of tourists. "Photographs, anyone?" the driver asked as he pulled up alongside me. Time to go.

Arts

Film: Miami Vice

I realised today I've not been to the cinema for two clear months. I must have been busy or something.

So there was no way I'd pass on the idea when Ruth suggested we go out tonight while our Mum baby-sat her daughter. We agreed to just watch whatever was next on at the multiplex.

It was an enjoyable evening, but not my first choice of film. Then again, on a Friday night sometimes all you want is to lean back, stare mindlessly at the screen and be entertained for two hours.

Consider the job done.

Greenbelt

The rumour comes home

Today's oblique Greenbelt reference comes courtesy of the BBC Radio 1 Entertainment News podcast. In the 3 August edition, Harry Shearer - the voice of Ned Flanders - says:

"I was pleased - if amazed - to note, a couple of years ago somebody called from the BBC and informed me that there was this group of Christian gentlemen in this country who dress up as Ned Flanders and have a convention every year."

I'm not surprised the story of Ship of Fools' Ned Flanders Night back in 2001 has found its way back to the source, or that it morphed considerably on the way.

Thank goodness Greenbelt changes each year. I'd hate for that to be an accurate description of the event. Then again, maybe Ned's an image we'll never quite shake off.