Written on Sunday, 30 August:
Sitting in upstairs lounge at Woodpecker, our cottage at Hunting Butts on the edge of Cheltenham, about half a mile from Greenbelt, which is on the Raceourse. Weather overcast and threatening rain. Cooler than yesterday, when warm sun and cooler cloud cover alternated. Greenbelt Sunday service has just finished (probably). We didn’t go in the end, because we got involved in conversation with the Greens and because the format with thousands of people didn’t really appeal. The Greens are sharing the cottage with us, and Beth has been staying the night too, surprisingly. Thought she would be a camping girl.
Yesterday we spent much of the day on site. It impressed me for quite a while as a vision of hell, with crowds of people milling around apparently not going anywhere, long queues for anywhere you did want to go and complete confusion. Not me at all. Left to buy cherries for Ambient Wonder event and a bottle of wine to replace one that had broken. Eventually found our way to the Grandstand area and listened to a bit of world music while waiting for Alistair McGrath to talk about Dawkins. He was excellent and attracted a big crowd. We used the camping stools we’d bought in Norwich, and they worked very well. Back to house again, then a bit of smaller chaos while Ambient Wonder got organised. However, it went very well and was so popular that people got turned away. After returning stuff to house returned for drink with Cracknells in Blue Nun, where we chatted up very bored bouncer. Bought delicious organic burger and very messy crepe, then got free tea in contributors’ area, then back to house.
The journey on Friday wasn’t too bad, despite huge amount of traffic on road. Lured happily on to Bedford, Milton Keynes route by queues on A14. Stopped at Thrift Farm after Milton Keynes (we had Mark from Poringland with us), then Dot drove the rest of the way, often on B-roads by a route she had worked out. Successfully avoided most of traffic and arrived at cottage 3.40. Greens arrived 5.40, and girls half an hour later. Took them into Greenbelt, then took Howard to supermarket and stocked up on food and wine. Back to house for food and long talk.
Monday 31st
Drifted down to the Hub , where some guy was speaking on These Dark Materials as epic. I booked and spent half an hour with a priest from Essex named Patrick. Liked him very much, and the chat was quite uplifting. Met Vicky and Amy and took them back to the house with Jared. Vicky had shower. Later went into Greenbelt with Anna and Beth and had food (paella in my case) . They then went off to queue for something or other, and we looked round stalls then dropped into the Performance Café because it started raining and heard a folkish band called Scenic Routes – quite good. Re-invented Ambient Wonder at a very small youth venue went pretty well. Afterwards took car home then went back for a drink with the Cracknells and Annie in Jesus Arms. Later dropped into Soul Space then later still watched Cornershop (not very engaging) and Athlete – very good indeed, but not as good as Duke Special the previous night, who were outstanding.
Tuesday 1st September
Heavy rain interspersed with some sun. Chillier. Shopped at Sainsbury’s in the morning – David and children arrived just before 2pm and we had lunch – later swam in pool, then used games room, played dominoes and had evening meal. David left at 7.15 and got home about 9.15. Children a bit reluctant to go to sleep, but not too bad.