Greenbelt

Who cares?

The final day of the festival - always a sad time.

But something I did enjoy was catching just a few minutes of the questions at the end my sister's talk, "Who cares about children in Care?". It was lovely seeing Ruth up there in Greenbelt's toughest venue with a decent size attentive audience, especially since she got there on her own merit - I hold very little sway with the programme team!

So tonight we wind things down. I'll be in Last Orders again, as has become my tradition, then tramp back to the tent for a final time. It's been a very good year.

Greenbelt

The Helpston link

I know very little about Iain Sinclair. I'd seen his book London Orbital and clocked that he was a walker/writer. I knew John Davies was a fan. So safe in this ignorance I trundled along to the new Festival Bowl venue to hear what he had to say.

Within a couple of minutes I'd summoned Emma by text. Ian had started talking about the poet John Clare and his relationship to the city and the country, in particular the village of Helpston. Of course Helpston is also where Emma grew up, and where - in the church where Clare is buried - we were married.

Later on I was fortunate enough to catch a performance by someone else who grew up nearby on the edge of the fens. Susan Enan's Performance Café set was a lovely delicate moment, but perhaps not appreciated by the masses who had arrived an hour early for the next act or were sheltering from the rain. Hopefully she won over a few new fans though.

Greenbelt

Röyksopp

Two quick snaps from tonight's mainstage, headlined by Röyksopp:

Music has been fantastic this year!

Greenbelt

Something new

Last night I appeared on the Last Orders show to try and drum up a few more sales of the iPhone Festival Guide. The app has been received very well - it's got glowing reviews on iTunes and currently has a rating of 4½★. The 'pointing finger' seems to be the most popular feature; it bounces in and out highlighting the requested venue on a scrollable, zoomable site map. I now understand that humour is essential in an iPhone app.

Something else that's new to me was seeing aerial theatre at Greenbelt. Ockham's Razor was absolutely this morning's hot ticket. I only got to see the second of three acts, but was blown away by it. It's difficult to express the mesmerising grace and beauty conveyed by these acrobats slipping away, then catching and pulling each other back into positions of stability. No wonder the Big Top was packed out; it's a shame more weren't able to see this remarkable performance.

Greenbelt

Anticipation

I love festival Fridays. There's a delicious sense of anticipation in the air.

Out in the car park people are starting to arrive. I go out and see the queues - not too bad this year - and allow myself to realise that it's about to start again. In the festival village finishing touches are being made before the public are allowed in. There are always surprises: sometime during the afternoon an ice sculpture was delivered, a model of Jesus suspended in its spire.

Then during the afternoon the phone calls begin: friends who've arrived to enjoy the festival are checking in with me and wanting to grab a cuppa.

The tribe is gathering...

Greenbelt

Construction

I arrived at Greenbelt at 8am this morning. Emma had to catch an early train to London so there seemed little point in me sleeping on - I hit the road and got to site before any rush hour could snarl my journey.

Earlier in the week someone expressed surprise that I'm not on site until the day before the festival opens. I pointed out that I'd only be in the way, and besides the site looks spectacular without my help! I completed the few jobs I needed to to today in a couple of hours; if it wasn't for the chance to go out for a pre-festival curry with friends tonight I might not have bothered until Friday.

Coastwalk

Gosport → Portsmouth

Distance: 18.2 miles
Ascent: 46 metres
Duration: 5 hours 10 minutes

Under development
« Warsash | Emsworth »

Searching once again for a coastwalk near home I found another harbour which I'd previously crossed by ferry. Plymouth, Southampton, Portsmouth... I got mixed up last night when Emma asked me where I would be walking, and to be honest today's hike around Portsmouth Harbour could easily have been either of the other two.

These south coast harbours are all very similar: cross-channel ferries, marinas with posh apartment blocks, naval bases with less salubrious accommodation, dual carriageways, industrial estates and golf courses. All were in order today.

Glancing towards the town there was no mistaking where I was though: the Spinnaker Tower is unique in the UK, its graceful profile looking as if it should be in Dubai rather than on the Hampshire coast.

The much older building of Portchester Castle was a hugely impressive place to have lunch. This mammoth fort dominates the central part of the walk from the northernmost end of the harbour.

Portsmouth itself is clearly working hard on regeneration, though I found it sad that in the barely within diving distance of the brand new Mountbatten Leisure Centre, Hilsea Lido lies fenced off and abandoned. Still there's much to see in the town itself and I'm certain I'll be back for a day-trip soon.

Note for future walkers: the bridge across Forton Lake just north of Gosport is open to the public; follow the chain-marked bricks in the path from the ferry.

Greenbelt , Tech

Festival.app is go!

In the early hours of this morning with the push of a button by someone at Apple, the fruit of my past month's evening hacking was laid bare to the world.

Yes, the Greenbelt 2009 Festival Guide app is now live!

If you get fed up lugging the paper Daily Diary around with you, or just find it difficult to use then this is the app for you. The Now&Next screen will show what's currently happening in each venue and what will happen next; the interactive site map will point out where to go; you can mark events as favourites and see at a glance where you should be; you can search for artists, events, genres and venues; the app will even download updates as the festival schedule changes.

It's been a long road to get here, one that started with a glimmer of an idea about fifteen months ago. I wrote the first lines of code while leaning against a pillar in the cloisters of Iona Abbey and finished the first version just in time for last year's festival. Ten people helped road-test the idea back then and came back with a resounding thumbs up. Over the past year I've substantially reworked the code base and streamlined the user interface while adding some key features.

I'm now nervously looking forwards to the festival. The early reviews are extremely positive, but it's only out there - quite literally "in the field" - that we'll discover if it was all worth it. Exciting times.

(And now the advert: if you run an event and would like an app like this, or if you want to talk to an iPhone app developer about other possibilities, do get in touch - I'd love to talk with you.)

Gig

U2 360°

There's no doubt about it. U2's 360° tour is by far the most preposterous event I've ever been to. But don't take that as a criticism; it was absolutely fantastic.

My jaw hit the floor too many times to mention, so instead I'll just hold onto the memory of I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For. It got me four years ago in Twickenham and it made my eyes well up again tonight in Wembley. Eighty-thousand voices, one endless human search. Beautiful.

(I have a few more photos on flickr.)

Comment

Twenty questions

The Guardian's Free Our Data campaign and the Ordnance Survey are locked in a bizarre game of Twenty Questions that demonstrates how innocent questions might lead to personal identification.

Having had their Freedom of Information Request to ascertain the author of a report declined, the campaign cheekily asked some more general questions about the author: do they work for the Government? Are they a foreign national?

What's curious is that the OS provided answers. Assuming Free Our Data go another few rounds at this, they should eventually have enough information to positively identify the author.

That demonstrates nicely how tricky the Freedom of Information and Data Protection Acts can be. I'm certainly not suggesting they're bad acts, but they're a whole lot more complex than they first appear and when an releases only limited information the chances are they're being careful to not breach regulations rather than deliberately hide something.