Greenbelt Festival creates cost of living support and safe space for refugees and asylum seekers

Greenbelt Festival continues to be a space where refugees and asylum seekers are welcome, valued and included. It’s a space which aims to remove barriers; environmentally, politically, economically, and spiritually, allowing anyone, whatever their situation, to enjoy the festival.

Greenbelt encourages open, honest conversations where the participants are kind and respectful. It’s somewhere that allows important issues, such as migration and the associated political decisions that influence human lives, to be discussed freely.

Each year the festival looks at how best it can support displaced people, migrant and refugee charities, and artists. This year it’s implementing a number of initiatives to support those impacted by migration as well as highlight the issues around the migration and refugee crisis. For Greenbelt, it’s less about big key names on this issue and more about its commitment in hearing from, and including, the voices and presence of migrants in its wider festival conversation.

COME FOR FREE‘Everyone’s invited’ is integral to Greenbelt’s accepting, inclusive festival community. It’s always been somewhere to belong, as well as somewhere to believe in. It’s right there in Greenbelt’s festival manifesto: “Whether it’s your first time or your fifteenth, you can expect a warm welcome”.

One of the most effective and simplest ways Greenbelt is making the festival more inclusive and accessible to refugees and asylum seekers is through its Open Festival free ticket scheme. This means refugees and asylum seekers, as well as anyone financially marginalised, can apply to come to the festival for free.

Greenbelt is also launching a crowdfunder that seeks to break down some of the barriers to participation in the festival for refugees and asylum seekers. It’s looking to raise £10,000 that will allow the festival to create wraparound support, ensuring that basics like food and accommodation are provided for free, along with access to spiritual and wellbeing support and ensuring there are friendly, welcoming spaces in the campsite and the festival village.

The newly launched crowdfunded aims to support anyone, such as those financially disadvantaged, facing barriers to participating in the festival. The current cost of living crisis has encouraged other festivals, such as Shambala Festival, to offer similar support.

This year Greenbelt is working closely with its partners such as Let’s End Poverty, Refugees at Home, Citizens UK, the Pickwell Foundation and Trussell Trust (to name just a few), to invite, support and amplify the voices of people with experience of poverty or seeking asylum in the UK.

GREENBELT’S NEW VENUE - THE TABLEGreenbelt’s food venue, the Table, is making a welcome return this year. It’s been reimagined in a new setting with a new collaboration with first-time partners, Refugees at Home, the UK charity which connects those with a spare room in their home to refugees and asylum seekers in need of somewhere to stay.

Set in a beautiful travelling barn structure, the Table offers a rolling programme of food and story designed to build solidarity and empathy for those from around the world who seek to make the UK their home.

Each session at the Table is a chance to watch, taste, smell, listen, learn, connect and encounter. Expect some special surprise guest chefs as well as Greenbelt’s very own Great British Bake Off contestant! There’s also a special listening party based around a project called ‘Tracks’ which features migrant stories. The album’s artwork, created by a Malaysian immigrant artist, forms an integral part of the creative process.

SERVING UP COMEDYDon’t miss Anastasia Chokuwamba and Loraine Mponela who’ll be performing at the Table this year. Two Coventry-based comedians and performers, they have emerged as stand-out stars of No Direction Home, a refugee comedy collective that showcases new comics from refugee and migrant backgrounds.

Anastastia and Loraine bring humour to their insights into life in the asylum system, and offer a fresh take on life in the UK. They have performed with No Direction Home at gigs across the country, including at London’s Soho Theatre and Southbank Centre, appearing with guest headliners such as Rob Delany, Fatiha El-Ghorri and Romesh Ranganathan.

CONNECTING MIGRATION & CLIMATEGreenbelt Festival’s Hot House venue (next to the Table) will be highlighting the connection between climate change and migration (one which is only set to grow over the coming years). As part of this programming the Pickwell Foundation will be sharing its resettlement work, involving the refugees it’s supported.

WHAT’S ON ELSEWHERE AT THIS YEAR’S GREENBELT?Greenbelt is a festival rich in diversity where great artistry, courageous activism and open-hearted belief has always been at the heart of its programming.

The festival has already announced headliners; Grammy-winner Corinne Bailey Rae; the epic 14-strong big band infusing jazz with UK garage, Dutty Moonshine Big Band; soul-soaring sounds of House Gospel Choir; chaos-bringing, grime, punk rock, and hip hop band, Bob Vylan; and unique sound of the McCrary Sisters where gospel effortlessly meets funk, blues, soul, a and R&B.

The eclectic line-up also includes writer, columnist, hip-hop recording artist and activist, Darren McGarvey, one of the best and brightest new folk artists around, Katherine Priddy; up-and-coming soul singer and songwriter extraordinaire Nectar Woode; and triple MOBO Award-winning artist, rapper, author, broadcaster and social justice activist, Guvna B.

Don’t miss; celebrated poet Antony Szmierek who was recently crowned one of BBC 6 Music’s Artists of the Year; award-winning spoken word artist & writer Jaspreet Kaur (also known by her online handle ‘Behind the Netra’); stand up and musical comedian Jon Long; rapper, composer and playwright Testament and his new soul and funk musical Chisholm for President; one of the world’s greatest contemporary circus acts, the magnificent Gandini Juggling; and drag legend Flamy Grant.

And not forgetting; icon of the British arts scene, Bobby Baker; writer, renowned sociologist and scholar of race, inequality and education, Jason Arday; criminal justice activist Lady Unchained and more, much more! Check out the full line-up here.

WANT IN ON THIS YEAR’S FESTIVAL?Greenbelt Festival's radical and inclusive pay-what-you-can ticketing pricing structure is back for a second year, where those who can pay – do – and those who can’t – have the opportunity to pay what they can. Even better, you can spread the cost with Greenbelt’s monthly installment plan, interest-free, up to July 2024.

Tier one adult weekend tickets start from just £160 for those who choose the Supported price, £202 for the festival’s Standard ticket, and then up to £244 for the pay-it-forward Supporter ticket.

FESTIVAL CREDENTIALSThe first Greenbelt Festival took place in 1974 on a Suffolk farm with the words ‘If you’ve got a field, you’ve got a festival’. The Sun Newspaper reviewed the first one as ‘The Nice People’s Pop Festival’, but it was more subversive than it appeared.

Over the years Greenbelt has welcomed headline acts such as Pussy Riot, Sinead O’Connor, Kae Tempest, Estelle, Laura Mvula, Magic Numbers, Ezra Furman, and Mavis Staples to name but a few! It has seen early performances by future global artists such as Ed Sheeren, Corinne Bailey Rae, as well as the mighty U2 who played Greenbelt in 1981 when they had only released their first album.

TICKET INFORMATIONYou can buy tickets and find our more about Greenbelt’s ticketing structure here

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