|TOP|Greenbelt Festival will kick off today at Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, with an extensive line-up of the most popular Christian artists and entertainers.

Former Iraq hostage and peace activist Norman Kember, a long-time ‘Greenbelter’ himself, will make a return to the festival this year to share his story.

Oscar winning Nick Park will also be at the event, in a year in which he won many awards for his latest Aardman feature-length film, ‘Wallace and Grommit: The Curse of the Were Rabbit’. Park will help Greenbelt judge video shorts made by young people over the weekend for DFID (The Department of International Development) on aid effectiveness.

In addition to Kember and Park, poet Laureate Andrew Motion, US political activist Jim Wallis, human rights lawyer and head of Reprieve Clive Stafford-Smith, and performance artist and ex-KLF man Bill Drummond will grace the stage at Greenbelt.

The weekend will feature talks from World Vision’s Director of Advocacy Rudo Kwaramba, Japanese reconciliation worker Keiko Holmes, and UK-based race and justice campaigner Bev Thomas. Plus, there will be contributions from Iona community leaders Kathy Galloway and John Bell, theologians Timothy Radcliffe and James Allison and Walter Wink, MPs Stephen Timms and Alistair Carmichael, and renowned Bishops.

The Greenbelt Festival will also dedicate an evening to Simpsons’ character Ned Flanders, saying that he is even more closely associated with Christianity than Mother Teresa or Pope John Paul II.

|AD|The Ned Flanders night started in 2001, where a huge crowd came to celebrate the life and work of America's best-known "God-boy". There were clips, live sing-a-ding-a-ling-along-with-Ned music, a Flanders look-a-like contest, Simpsons chocolates, amongst other activities.

Festival Director, Beki Bateson, said: “We’ve probably not had such a strong and diverse speaker line-up ever before at Greenbelt and I am delighted at the sheer variety of voices contributing. I am sure that many people will take great inspiration from all that they hear at this year’s Festival – whether from a Christian faith perspective or not. There really is something for everyone.”

Greenbelt 06 will be held 25 – 28 August 2006, with the theme ‘Redemption Songs’. Last year, Greenbelt came to a close with over 18,000 people attending the festival, which carried the theme ‘Tree of Life’.

For more information, go to www.greenbelt.org.uk.