AUGUST 2018

Acts of the
Imagination:
Greenbelt 2018
Following a successful premier at last year’s
Greenbelt Festival, we will be making a comeback
this August Bank holiday, with Midcounties,
Co-operatives UK and New Internationalist helping
us to fund our own venue again, the Exchange.
If you’ve never been, Greenbelt is an arts, faith
and justice festival that attracts about 10,000
people of all ages, including large numbers
of families, young people, community activists and
a wide range of people across the public sector. But
until last year – when the theme was The Common
Good – the co-operative movement did not have
a presence at the festival at all.
However it’s a great place for co-operators to
go, because many festival-goers are thoroughly
dissatisfied with the status quo – and are looking
for something different. Most of them know little
about what co-operation has to offer, which
means that they are a very interested, receptive,
questioning and enthusiastic audience.
Last year, together with Co-operative Energy
and the Phone Co-op, we introduced people
to student housing co-ops, worker co-ops and
energy co-ops; we held drop-ins and workshops
for people interested in finding out more; we had
panel discussions and we featured some speakers
(Pete Westall, Vivian Woodell, Ed Mayo) both in
the Exchange and on the main festival programme.
This year in the Exchange
• David Bird, CEO of Co-operative Energy, will star
on our opening night with Rob Norman from New
Internationalist
• Ed Mayo will interview Kate Raworth (author
of Doughnut Economics)
• we have two sessions with Eve Poole (author
of Capitalism’s Toxic Assumptions and
Leadersmithing – Revealing the Trade Secrets
of Leadership)
• following this year’s festival theme Acts of the
Imagination, we have three events: re-imagining
housing, re-imagining care and re-imagining
work, featuring pioneering co-operative
organisations breaking new ground (you’ll have
to wait and see)
• we have a series of panel discussions on
re-imagining money, which will include Islamic
finance, the impact we can have with our money,
and the future of money
• there will be a series of panel discussions run
by HeartEdge, a Church of England project
promoting commerce, culture, compassion and
congregation, and
• a daily dose of co-operative education from
Co-operatives UK (What is a co-op?)
As an added incentive to entice festival-goers
into the Exchange in its new prime location in the
centre of the site, Midcounties is providing wi-fi,
the only space with internet access on the whole
site. We expect some visitors.
And of course there’s loads of other stuff going
on at Greenbelt, including masses of music (Pussy
Riot are headlining), comedy, poetry, dance,
drama … There is a wide range of very enticing
street food available, a decent wine bar, and
excellent beer.
Last year, apparently Ed burst into song
(I missed it) when he was supposed to be speaking.
He wanted to be able to boast that he had sung
at Greenbelt. I suggest that this year, we crowd
fund a campaign to STOP him singing again, with
the proceeds to go to …
It’s a great event, in glorious surroundings,
which will leave you uplifted, challenged,
exhilarated and exhausted. It would be great to
see you there.
GREENBELT
DAVID ALCOCK
PARTNER, ANTHONY
COLLINS SOLICITORS
AUGUST 2018 | 25