Editing Greenbelt Festival (section)

==History==
Greenbelt is a nomadic festival which has so far been held at seven different locations in England. While the venue has changed, the core event has remained the same: a celebration of faith, justice and arts with a particular Christian perspective.

The first Greenbelt Festival was held on a pig farm just outside the village of [[Charsfield]] near [[Woodbridge, Suffolk|Woodbridge]], Suffolk over the August 1974 bank holiday weekend, begun by [[Jim Palosaari]], Kenneth Frampton, and James Holloway. Local fears concerning the festival in the weeks running up to it proved to be unfounded, but the festival did not return to the venue.

Between 1975 and 1981 the festival was held in the grounds of [[Odell, Bedfordshire|Odell]] Castle in [[Bedfordshire]]. The largest audiences for Greenbelt were during its two-year stay at [[Concerts at Knebworth House|Knebworth Park]] in [[Hertfordshire]], 1982 and 1983.

1984 saw Greenbelt move to one of its longest-serving homes, [[Castle Ashby]], [[Northamptonshire]]. While at Castle Ashby, Greenbelt began the practice of adopting an annual theme for the festival. Artists are encouraged to draw from the theme where possible.

Originally the 1992 festival was expected to be held at a new, permanent home on a farm a few miles away in [[Church Stowe]]. Greenbelt had finances in place to purchase the site, but met strong resistance from local residents. The plans collapsed and the festival returned to Castle Ashby one last time.

From 1993 to 1998 Greenbelt's home was the grounds of [[Deene Park]], Northamptonshire. Putting the plan to purchase a permanent site on hold, Greenbelt instead negotiated with Deene Park's owner and invested in infrastructure improvements to this temporary site instead.

Following a downturn in audience figures and rising production costs, Greenbelt faced up to the inevitable in 1998: it was no longer financially viable to continue using the Deene Park site. A bold plan was devised. The 1998 event was pitched as the "last Greenbelt of its kind", with two festivals planned for 1999: a youth-oriented event "Freestate" in partnership with [[Spring Harvest]] to be held the August Bank Holiday weekend and a more family-oriented "Greenbelt" to be held over the last weekend in July at [[Cheltenham Racecourse]].

In early 1999 plans for Freestate collapsed and its embryonic programme was hastily rolled into the Greenbelt planned for Cheltenham. The 1999 Greenbelt Festival took place at [[Cheltenham]] but saw the lowest audiences since the 1970s. It remains the only Greenbelt to have taken place other than on an August Bank Holiday weekend.

Greenbelt emerged from its financial difficulties in the early 2000s with ever-increasing audiences for festivals held at Cheltenham. In its last years at Cheltenham, although audiences were beginning to fall, they were over 20,000, comparable in numbers to those of its "glory days" in the early 1980s. In 2014 Greenbelt moved to [[Boughton House]], Northamptonshire, due to the planned redevelopment of [[Cheltenham Racecourse]], as well as part of the site being unusable after severe weather during the 2012 festival caused flash flooding across parts of the racecourse. Since the move the festival has been scaled back after a drop in numbers and possibly due to the related loss of finances.<ref name=CTGBFinance>{{cite web|title=Trouble ahead (or behind) for Greenbelt festival?|url=http://www.christiantoday.com/article/trouble.ahead.or.behind.for.greenbelt.festival/49666.htm|website=Christiantoday.com|access-date=28 April 2016}}</ref>

At the 2022 festival, Greenbelt announced that from 2023 they would bring the start and end dates forward to coincide with the festival's 50th anniversary. Greenbelt 2023 began with festivalgoers gathering on Thursday 24th and programming running from the morning of Friday 25th to Sunday 27th, instead of Friday evening to Monday evening.<ref>{{cite web|title=Life begins at 50 - Greenbelt|url=https://www.greenbelt.org.uk/life-begins-at-50/|website=Greenbelt.org.uk|date=29 August 2022}}</ref> The 2024 festival will follow the same pattern of dates running from  22 to 25 August 2024.

The 2025 festival will run from 21-24 August 2025,<ref>{{Cite web |title=Greenbelt Festival 2025 Lineup |url=https://www.greenbelt.org.uk/2025-lineup/ |access-date=2025-05-16 |website=Greenbelt |language=en-GB}}</ref> with headliners including [[Nadine Shah]] and [[Kate Rusby]].

Although there is constant tension between its faith-based origins and a more exploratory attitude to engaging with the world, the perspective of the festival remains one rooted in the Christian tradition, and drawing Christian music lovers.<ref name="BowdinO'Toole2006">{{cite book|author=Glenn Bowdin|title=Events Management|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SQ1FAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA207|date=15 March 2006|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-136-40459-7|pages=207–}}</ref>