Greenbelt festival

The Children's Society is very proud to be an associate partner of Greenbelt, the Christian arts festival attended by over 20,000 people each summer. The festival boasts over 650 events including music, comedy, poetry, talks and drama.

At the festival we highlight issues faced by children and young people today, including young runaways and children's well-being.

Supporting our Make Runaways Safe campaign

In the UK 100,000 children under the age of 16 run away from home each year. That’s one child every five minutes, every day, all year long.

Over the past two years, thousands of Greenbelters joined our Make Runaways Safe campaign. Together we’re calling on the government to ensure that children and young people who go missing have a safety net that ensures they don’t end up as another statistic.

If you have not already done so, please use our runaways map to tell whether your local authority has pledged to uphold our Runaways Charter - and if they haven't tell them they should.

What it was like

Please watch our videos from the 2011 and 2012 Greenbelt festivals. 

Greenbelt 2012

Greenbelt 2011

In 2011, we created two videos, the first of which addresses our Make Runaways Safe activities.

Our second video from the 2011 Greenbelt festival is more general, including a special concert by Iain Archer.