For the third year running, QAN will be holding a Quaker space at Greenbelt Festival. We invited ideas from QAN artists for a simple, participatory artwork to be made collectively by visitors over the three days of the festival. Many of the ideas we received will be shared on our new resources web page (coming soon).
“Enter imaginatively into the life and witness of other communities of faith, creating together the bonds of friendship.”
(Quaker Advices and Queries no.9)
Visitors to the gazebo will be invited to add their own personal mark to ‘Be Patterns’, a collective and collaborative visual art work using ink pads and fingerprints. A simple activity suitable for all ages. We will also be providing materials and guidance to make a simple friendship bracelet as a takeaway memento of the festival and QAN Gazebo experience.
In 2025 we were back to Greenbelt again, this time with a theme of racial justice for the International Day Marking the Abolition of Slavery. We displayed the Woolford and Woolford: No Relation exhibition, and acted as a hub for Quaker activities on site which included Michael Mears' performance of The Mistake, Poetry performances by James Pendle, and a series of art-based Quaker epilogues in collaboration with Iona Community and Francsiscans.
We were very happy to see that over 2000 people engaged with QAN related events during the course of the festival, and we look forward to returning in 2026.
2024 was the 50th year of the Christian-based Greenbelt Festival held at Boughton House near Kettering, from August 23rd to 25th. We were very excited to be hosting a gazebo at Greenbelt for the first time, which was a welcoming space for exploring, creating, reflecting and finding out about Quaker spirituality and witness.
Our aims were to:
All in all the project went very well, with around 500 folk visiting the gazebo, joining in quiet activities such as board games, arts and crafts, poetry and conversations and 200 people attending Meeting for Worship in the Shelter. Several visitors shared how they first encountered Quakers at Greenbelt and have since become members.
It was good to have a mix of newer and seasoned Friends of different ages, including some who were involved in other parts of Greenbelt.
Our presence created a significant outreach opportunity with roughly 300 copies of Advices and Queries distributed. A two-hour looped slide show and catalogue, curated by Kirsten Lavers, submitted by Quaker artists of images by particular queries filled a large screen (provided by Jesus Lane Quaker Meeting) at one end of the gazebo.
An exhibition of Loving Earth Project panels was also very well received and participants in our two workshops were so enthusiastic that we held a third informal one, which was particularly enjoyed by a group of young teenagers.