Karl posted a comment on my previous entry asking for highlights and surprises from the festival. I’d intended to post something to that effect at some stage, but there’s no time like the present…

Musically there was plenty to enjoy. With the presence of Brother Danielson and Half-Handed Cloud (and, to a lesser extent, Sufjan Stevens) there was a definite avant garde stream running through the event, and it was great to see the warm response to those artists. Among festival-goers there was a clear appreciation of what they were trying to achieve and many of us really enjoyed their sets. Seeing John Ringhofer (Half-Handed Cloud) perform was great after listening to his latest album so much of late.

I really enjoyed David Dark’s keynotes. There were some interesting comments on Andy Whitman’s blog (both in the entry and in the comments on it) about the talks, but for me David’s anecdotal style is very appealing. I also really enjoyed the discussion after Adam’s workshop about collage, electronic music, and how we responded to Matmos‘ “A Chance To Cut Is A Chance To Cure.” The last-minute addition of Dave Bazan to the Saturday night lineup, and the fabulous performance Sarah Masen pulled out of the hat, were great!

As I’ve found with Greenbelt over the years, the main reason for attending an event like this is the community. The real highlight was definitely catching up with old friends and rekindling relationships started at the inaugural event. I was pleasantly surprised by how strong some of those relationships have quickly become, and how inclusive the event felt. Naturally, speaking at and helping organise the event, my perspective was somewhat skewed, but it really felt like there was no chasm between contributors and attendees.

On a slightly different note, if anyone has any photos of the event that they could upload to flickr and tag ‘ffm2005′ it would certainly make this ffm2005 page more enticing.

Tags: ffm2005

This entry would have been sooner coming, but a few details leapt in the way and this week has been no calmer than the last. It’s definitely good news that the Festival of Faith and Music went so well as it did.

This festival was always going to be a different experience for me than the last: not having a 28-hour journey and the associated jetlag was a big bonus, and it was never going to be quite so life-changing as my first visit to Grand Rapids. But while none of those who were at the inaugural event could claim quite such an impact as it had on Kari and I, it was clear that there had been some repercussions, as evidenced by the warm friendships between people who had first met two years ago, and Daniel Smith’s statement from the stage that he had felt freed up to “try some new things.”

In our first feedback meeting there seemed a concensus that the depth of engagement had increased by this year. Albert Pedulla’s worship session was fantastic and very much in keeping with the tone of the event, and alongside the number of conversations in the corridors was clear evidence that the content of the workshops was spilling out of the classrooms. Whether it was stories from the road, or links between Dada-ist collage and electronic music, the interaction was great to watch and partake in.

If you’re looking for details on the talk I did at the festival, you can find them here, and I’m gathering links to FFM-related blog entries at del.icio.us. Of course, you can always try one of these two technorati searches too.

Tags: ffm2005