Greenbelt are getting more efficient every year. It's only May and I'm already being asked for copy for the festival's daily diary, describing my contribution to the jamboree this year. This is how it reads:
Cheltenham: Peculiar Pedestrian Pilgrimage
Sunday 1.30-4.00
Encounter Cheltenham as you’ve never imagined it before. An urban experiential walk referencing the methods and obsessions of Jim Hart, influential maverick urban missioner and committed explorer of towns and cities, who died in 2009. Led by John Davies. Meet in car park outside the main festival box office at 1.30. Back by 4.00 approx.
The festival are keen to pay tribute to some of the lesser-known saints of our community in recent times and it's great to be asked to do something which has Jim as its focus. I'm sure we will deviate from Jim's methods quite a bit - no-one could walk and talk a city like he did anyway, at high-speed, streaming off a wildly informative monologue of historical references, architectural place-notes and forthright opinion as he went - and I'll also be guided by something which is coming to me this week: a copy of Phil Smith's new publication, a booklet called ‘A Sardine Street Box of Tricks’ which offers 'various approaches and tactics' intended to serve as 'a help to anyone who makes, or would like to make walk-performances or variations on guided tours'. Looking forward to it. This August Bank Holiday walk will be different from 2007's Heart of Cheltenham Pilgrimage: this is going to be a Hart of Cheltenham pilgrimage. If you're at the festival, dear reader: do join me.
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