Greenbelt Festival organisers say activism as important today as 50 years ago
The festival where music and activism come together is being held at Broughton House near Kettering this weekend.
The 51st Greenbelt Festival is taking place this weekend at Boughton House near Kettering
Set up by Christian groups originally it bills itself as a boutique event with music and guest speakers and says it's 'where artistry meets activism'.
Paul Northup is the creative director of Greenbelt. The festival has been running as long as Glastonbury and been on more times:
"We might be one of the longest continuously running festivals, but we started around the same sort of era that Glastonbury and the Isle of Wight started, back in the late 60s early 70s, 1974 in our case."
He says activism and ideas discussed at the festival are as important today as when the festival was set up:
"When those festivals like Woodstock in the States, Glastonbury here were being born, they were being born at the end of the 60s and out of the of a large, response to the Vietnam War and the peace movement that began amongst young people and young adults in response to this, saying no more things like CND being born.
"Those were the things of those times and I think that today still given our environmental concerns and pressures, we've got we and and all sorts of different issues that are pressing in on us as as humans and the way we live. That that desire to be active and to say no, no, no, this isn't right. We need to do something differently. It's still just as strong."
Bridgerton actress Adjoa Andoh, MP Jeremy Corbyn and Britain's Got Talent Winner Lost Voice Guy are on this years line up, with previous years having seen U2 and Bob Geldof.
Paul says it's important that the event stay as inclusive as possible, something they try to do with their ticket prices:
"We've got a model whereby those who are doing well and are comfortable can pay over the odds and those who are struggling can pay under the odds. You can choose which ticket type suits you the best and then when it comes to day tickets, we've rolled those back to pre-pandemic prices.
"So our day ticket prices for this weekend at the same price that they were back in 2019 and then we've got a whole range of concession tickets, discounted tickets for young adults, 18 to 25's."
Having moved around the country it was been in Northamptonshire since 2014.