“You can’t just trust YouTube”, he implores the audience during his talk, “you have to be your own authority”. One speaker, Manchester-based musician Darren Nesbitt, dismisses the circular model of the Earth entirely, correctly critiquing that the Sun would have to travel faster in the South to make it around the outer-edge of the circle, which does not match our observations. Most do not believe in space none believe mankind has ever travelled there. There is less consensus, however, on what form the Earth actually takes: some believe it to be a disc with the Arctic circle in the middle some believe that circle is under a dome, above which there may or may not be an expanse of water others believe the Earth is just one in a series of ponds in a vast expanse of ice and other still believe the Earth exists beneath four cosmic rings within a giant egg-shaped universe.

That unshakeable belief is one of the few points of total agreement for the 200-strong audience at this week’s gathering. “Apart from that we don’t live on a globe”. “When people ask me what I believe, I can’t say that I believe in anything 100%”, Gary John tells the audience during his opening address.

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