Greenbelt Festival 2008

22 August - 25 August 2008, Cheltenham Racecourse

Greenbelt Festival is UK's largest Christian festival, featuring music, seminars, theatre, literature, and many other activities. First held in 1974, Greenbelt festival is in its 33rd year, and, the last festival taking place at Cheltenham Racecourse, attracted around 19,000 festival-goers. The theme for the 2008 Greenbelt Festival is Rising Sun.

2008 musical line-up features Michael Franti & Spearhead, Martyn Joseph, as well as 1 Giant Leap, the brainchild of musical visionaries Jamie Catto and Duncan Bridgeman, who took a laptop and a DV camera round the globe to create a unique audiovisual snapshot. 1 Giant Leap celebrate ‘unity in diversity’ and offer perhaps the only true vision of ‘positive globalisation’. They headline the mainstage on Sunday 24 August. Monday’s main act is then Fightstar with its frontman Charlie Simpson, former Busted star.

Literary talks will include multi-award-winning writer Michael Morpurgo, the former Children’s Laureate. In the Visual Arts programme Leon Varga's ‘Kiss the sun Icarus’ installation features seven winged bicycles. In Performing Arts, the Festival welcomes the UK’s leading, living mime artist Nola Rae with her show Elizabeth’s Last Stand and also the celebrated Linda Marlowe (Steven Berkoff’s leading West End lady) with her show Believe, which tells the story of a handful of Old Testament heroines – blood, guts and all.

You can access the site from 10am on Friday 22 August 2008. The Festival village will be open to the public from around 2pm on Friday 22 August 2008 and the Festival programme will begin officially at around 5pm. The Festival then continues over the next three-and-half days, actually finishing in the early hours of Tuesday 26 August, at the end of the last full day's (Bank Holiday Monday) programme. Those camping leave before midday on Tuesday 26 August 2008. (Mainstage finishes at 23.00hrs each evening.)

Tickets can be booked in advance either online at http://www.greenbelt.org.uk/tickets, or by calling the ticket line 0207 374 2760. Tickets must be paid for in full at the time of booking.

For information about this and other Cheltenham events please visit our Cheltenham events guide.