The Summer festival season is well and truly under way. I had my first taste of festival fervour, as I headed for Glastonbury, straight from hosting the Messy Church Conference and Key International leaders’ days. The timings were all a bit bonkers, but opportunities like this come once in a lifetime and I had some post-conference flexi-leave to use.
Arriving onsite a day before the festival started, I joined Citizens of the World choir on a contractor ticket. We’d been invited, along with five other choirs, to be a part of ‘Dreamweavers’ opening ceremony of Glastonbury on Wednesday 25th June 10pm, providing a soundscape for a 30-minute circus show featuring aerial artists (including a wheelchair user), flame throwers and fireworks. We would be performing on the iconic Pyramid stage. How awesome is that!
The whole experience gave me a fascinating insight into the backstage world of making a festival and show run smoothly. On a macro level, a small town for 250,000 people had been created at Worthy Farm, complete with eco-toilets, showers, countless performance stages, food trucks, shops and art installations. The day I arrived, it was already populated by an army of volunteers stationed on surrounding roads, carparks, and entry checkpoints. There were night stewards, litter pickers, recycling sorters, stage mangers, artistic directors and catering teams ready to feed us. A massive shout out to the crew at Burbs kitchen, who cheerfully served our 70-strong choir with three solid meals each day – the organisation was phenomenal.
Our choir represented a small microcosm within the wider festival. Huge credit to our committed choir management team who secured the gig and in the space of six weeks managed to source a coach, tents, sleeping bags and camping mattresses (special mention to James Cook our camping co-ordinator) and all the admin attached to bringing a choir of 70 people made up of refugees and allied members to a festival.
When it came to our 30-minute ‘Dreamweavers’ show, our choir leader, the talented Becky Dell, only received the music score two weeks beforehand and arranged nearly daily online and in person rehearsals, alongside regular rehearsals for the Refugee Week performance earlier the same week. Once onsite, we had three further rehearsals, and soon realised how much walking was involved, moving between the campsite and Pyramid stage. We also realised how much hanging around is required, watching the aerial artists climb into positions on their swaying poles, whilst listening to the countdown in our earpieces, waiting patiently for the click track to start so that circus performers, drummers and choir could perform in unison.
However, it took more than careful management to bring the show together. It required every choir member and performer to play their part. Not only as we sang harmonies together on stage, but off-stage it was wonderful to witness how together we were better than the sum of all our parts.
At the Messy Church conference we’d unpacked 1 Corinthians 12:12-31, thinking about the body of Christ, and how everyone has a valuable part to play. Over the course of our Glastonbury stay, I watched the camaraderie build between choir members, sharing their stories, helping each other out, making sure those with accessibility needs were catered for, everyone looking out for each other. It was the best non-church church I’ve been a part of, littered with spiritual conversations. My favourite part of the experience was the afternoon spent preparing for our big night. With a successful rehearsal that morning, our confidence was bolstered and we spent the afternoon back at the campsite changing into our bright coloured costumes, plaiting hair and helping with make-up (as it was due to be filmed for the BBC Glastonbury channel), ahead of making our way to the production tent behind the Pyramid stage, for a glow-up and glitter by the professional make-up artists.
Exiting via a different route, we found ourselves in an exclusive area that not only had flushable toilets but was hosting a private reception with speeches from the CEO’s of the three main charity sponsors: Oxfam, Greenpeace and Water Aid. They encouraged us to wake up to the eco-disaster unfolding around the globe, campaign for social justice and give voice to the voiceless. So many of our choir have ended up in the UK because of war, persecution or climate disasters, the themes resonated, and we joined this bigger tribe. As young south-Sudanese DJ’s mixed the decks, our choir of 70, with members from 28 countries, hit the dance field and got the party started!
Eventually it was time to ground ourselves. Holding hands in a wide circle, we started our vocal warm-ups before heading backstage to collect our ear pieces. It was show time! As we stood in the gathering darkness on the Pyramid stage, a spotlight scanned the Pyramid field, momentarily revealing a crowd of over 80,000 people waiting in anticipation. Finally, the click track started in our earpieces. The moment had come and our voices created an eerie tribal soundscape, that built into a crescendo as we sang ‘Light, Life, Hope’ and ‘Joy’, to the sound of drumbeats. In front of us aerial artists swayed on poles, unfurling banners with the words ‘Peace, Hope and Joy’, whilst others twirled in the air under giant golden umbrellas that protected them from showers of pyrotechnics. It was an amazing spectacle that culminated with fireworks exploding off the top of the stage.
As we packed up the tents the following morning, after a few hours sleep on a self-deflating air-bed, we had the opportunity to go for a wander. There was a cacophony of sound as the music and performance venues started up. I was no longer a festival maker but a festival spectator, watching the new arrivals don their festival outfits and strut around in furry hats, cowboy boots, sequined jackets and face glitter.
What a privilege to be a small part of this festival that seeks to provide a home for a few days for the creatives and campaigners, music lovers and magicians, street artists and singers, the rich and the refugee and those who love to wear outrageous outfits!
I wonder?..
Would you rather be a festival maker or festival spectator?
Who are the people that need thanking, who work behind the scenes to make your Messy Church run smoothly?
Have you considered running a pop-up Messy Church at a local Parksfest this Summer? We’d love to hear your story if you’re making the most of this missional opportunity.
If you’re headed for Big Church Festival 22-24 August, look out for Sarah Smart (Messy Church Network Development lead) who’ll be on the Street Child stand in the Expo, helping to promote our Messy Church Street Child session on compassion, which you can find in Get Messy! Vol.3.
Aike Kennett-Brown
BRF ministries Messy Church Ministry Lead
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