Orthodox Vespers or The Magic Roundabout? Return from Greenbelt 1

So ran one entry in my festival diary at this year’s Greenbelt. In the event I got to neither that day, but having finally managed Vespers (the only bit of worship I attended all Festival…incredible but true), it seems to me that the one might indeed make a good subtitle for the other!
Greenbelt is always a time of hard choices; so many riches, so little time. Speakers, musicians, artists, market stalls, even food…last night the entire GoodinParts family were to be seen comparing notes over the numerous food outlets in the village, so we could each choose the perfect “Last Festival Meal this year”…based on the experience of others. (Take it from me, refried beans are a mistake. Even at Greenbelt). Apart from this, the choices I made were largely successful. Fuel for lots of blog entries from assorted seminars ….a new wish-list of music I never expected to enjoy so much…more books to add to the guilt-inducing piles scattered around the place…CDs…t shirts….lots of everything really.
But my best Greenbelt moments were the unplanned ones, which could never find their way into a diary. Walking the grass maze on my own first thing one morning, while the festival village slowly woke around me…Lying on the grass under a noon sun listening to Purcell with loved and loving people only a hand’s reach away…Standing beside the bubble stall watching children chase the dancing bubbles that glistened irresistably in the coloured lights of the village at night…I want to dance with God that way.
Oh to bottle all that, to mix it with those friendships, new and renewed, to sustain me for the next twelve months. But as Darling Daughter reminds me every year “Greenbelt is a state of mind, and not just a Festival” so that should carry me through until August 06. I wonder what the theme will be then…