20,000 people passed through the gates of Cheltenham Racecourse this weekend to sample the wide-ranging programme presented by the 37th Greenbelt Festival.

Despite being exceptionally wet before the festival, the audience were greeted with glorious sunshine on Friday morning, which lasted throughout the four-day festival, leaving conditions perfect for a huge range of insightful talks, outstanding music, and stimulating programmes of performing and visual arts.

New artists appearing at the festival included comedian Robin Ince, who proclaimed it one of his favourite festivals of the year; and the creators of the sitcom Rev, Pirates-of-the-Caribbean actor Tom Hollander and writer James Wood, who were ‘overwhelmed’ by their experience. Returnees warmly welcomed included human rights activist Peter Tatchell, comedian Milton Jones and jazz legend Courtney Pine.

Despite a last-minute cancellation by Gil Scott-Heron, Greenbelt’s audience rallied behind stand-in headliners The King Blues. Rachel Stringer, Greenbelt Head of Content, said: “We always knew we had a terrifically strong lineup on Monday with Clare Short, Jeremy Hardy, David Morrisey, Roger McGough, Linda Marlowe, Mark Kermode, and especially our mainstage first support The King Blues, who stepped up to create a brilliant end to another great Greenbelt.”

This year’s theme – The Art of Looking Sideways – encouraged oblique views on a range of subjects including sustainability, ethics, church and international development, with particular focus on Greenbelt’s three-year campaign on Israel-Palestine.

The annual communion service raised over £43,000 for Trust Greenbelt, the festival’s charitable trust which supports
organisations that embrace the festival’s faith, arts and justice focus.

Over a hundred talks recorded at the festival are available at greenbelt.org.uk/talks [http://greenbelt.org.uk/talks]

2011 earlybird tickets for next year’s festival (26th – 29th August 2011) are available at greenbelt.org.uk/tickets