So sad to see just how many tents were abandoned this morning when we left. This morning we heard the tent next to ours packing up and they had a group conversation saying the tent had been used twice, so when you think about, it the cost is very little divided between the 6 of them.
Theyāre right, in the context of tickets, travel and spending money, the tent etc isnāt that big a cost.
What I found staggering amongst the group, was that nobody said anything about the moral position of generating that much consumer waste just because they couldnāt be bothered to pack up and carry it with them. Not to mention the fact that they took it for granted that someone else (eg. the festival organisers) will clean up after them.
I was just staggered by the arrogance of it all and, although it was just one story, I left wondering about the stories of all the other abandoned tents and the self justifications the owners gave themselves as they left them behind.
Rant over.
Sorry, I was just brought up to respect stuff and not be a litterbug.
I think my son's tent got abandoned there last night, as someone had slashed it during the evening and stole his backpack. He arrived home at about 5am this morning, wet filthy and exhausted. Absolute scum
If you say so. I'd argue it's the idiots trashing other people's belongings rather than the young lads being left with nowhere to sleep and their bags stolen....
that's half the problem right there then isnt it, people not thinking about clearing up after themselves. Also, obvs not the first thing he was thinking about, but should have been on the list
so everything was wet already then, so might as well get the tent put down and binned properly or taken hope to see if it can be fixed.
I'm not trying to have a go at your son btw, im sure it was really shit that his stuff got nicked and he decided to leave and travel through the night, but its about the mindset isnt it. If this happened to one or two people then fair one, leave the tents, but if everyone has the mindset of "oooh no its raining i cant do it" then we're doomed
Same, my lads got slashed alongside all of his mates. 10 of them spent last night sharing a 4 man tent shitting themselves. He had no option but to leave anything that hadnāt been robbed behind as the train home would only allow backpacks.
When I was younger (and Iām talking 2016-2019 era) me and my
Mates would always stay late on the Monday so we could take home some new camping gear but this year itās like nothing Iāve ever seen before. And Iāve been to some wash out festivals. But the level of I donāt give a fuck is really sad. What happened in the last year few years that everyone collectively just doesnāt give a fuck anymore
Biggest blackpill is that most people donāt have a moral compass. They just do whatever gets them the most social cred. If they canāt get in trouble, they wonāt do the right thing. COVID broke down the social order a lot so people are getting away with more.
Not sure if it's still a thing (hope so) but they used to allow charities in to collect unwanted items. My friend volunteered and organisations like homeless charities and those supporting asylum seekers in Calais collected up the tents, chairs etc. My friend was allowed to collect things for personal use that charity didn't want and ended up with (I kid you not) a chest freezer full of unopened booze.
So I hope that makes you feel a little better that not all that is left behind goes straight into landfill and can help those most in need (talking more about the tents here than the booze!).
There were charities going in this afternoon. I saw them myself. But many tents are unusable as they been jumped on or ripped. Itās terrible. The weather has made it a lot worse. Itās hard to pack up a very soggy tent, camping gear etc. Long walk to PUDO. Plus it all has to be dried out at home. Iām not excusing this behaviour, just providing a different perspective. I packed up today & nothing was wet or soggy. All my stuff came home except a chair which was taken to rubbish site. My camping gear is 10+ years old & starting to fail now. I value my stuff.
Thank you for being a good citizen. Also completely take your point that the asshats destroying property means so much has to go to landfill, shame the perpetrators can't join them!
I did a charity collection at Reading a few years ago. We were told to only collect small (1-2 man) tents in good nick that could be put away properly. Sadly lots were covered in food/ mud, or the tent bag wasnt there. The chairies only have limited resources to clean and repair stuff, so lots of stuff still gets left behind. I did get a fuck tonne of booze though - mainly dark fruits cider š
I have been on charity collection today but its salvage and bloody hard work and a HELL of a lot of shit left - not even bagged up - 90% is being landfill in the morning!
I really hoped things would be better. Arenāt people becoming more environmentally conscientious? Thereās loads of stuff going around right now about sustainable festivals and recycling and upcycling and reusing and all that.
99% of tents won't be packed up and used by charities, the idea that that will happen makes the problem worse as people think there's a moral upside to just leaving their shit behind.
This is unfortunately a byproduct of a festival that has relinquished all motives other than to just generate profit.
The last time I attended Reading was 2017, between sets every now and then they'd flash up a text box on the monitors saying "please take your belongings home". Even then it kind of just came off as a "we're covering our bases to say we tried" vibe. The amount of waste left that year was appalling. Haven't returned since, for a multitude of reasons, mostly due to the other people attending.
Boomtown however absolutely blows me away each year with how much the site is cleared up compared to other mainstream festivals. I'd say its largely due to how integrated the motive of "leave the site as you found it" is within the whole spirit of the festival. Not just some half-assed messages flashed up every now and then on the main stage screens. Festival goers are willing to clean up after themselves, they just need a better push than some sporadic words on a screen.
It's sad it needs to be reminded, but the festival organisers are definitely part to blame unfortunately. Shouldn't be the case but it is.
I used to go to global gathering when it was around, I stayed late to make sure I was good to drive. Whilst waiting I would just go round and take what I needed for next year, like a magpie collecting goodie. Camping chairs, beds, inflatable sofas had a whole stockpile. Itās crazy what people leave sometimes .
I wonder if you asked them how many would say they were environmentally friendly and cared about the planet. It's a big empty field when you arrive, why can't you leave a big empty field behind?
Because they donāt see the waste. Seriously, they mentally tune it out. Unless youāre actually concerned about your impact on the environment, itās so easy to just blank every bit of litter you see.
I mean, if you think about it, these people effectively have a bunch of servants to clean up after them:
A litterbug leaves the tent behind
A volunteer picks up the tent and throws it away
A man at a waste disposal plant processes the tent
A man ships the tent off to some faraway rubbish tip
The tent ends up in a massive pile on the other side of the world
The litterbug only thinks about the tent at step 1. Everyone else actually has to deal with it. From his perspective he has an army of people cleaning up after everything he does. He gets to enjoy nice, pristine, beautiful nature because other people are cleaning everything up for him.
And because he never actually has to deal with the tent, he never thinks about it. As far as heās concerned, the tent just vanished into the aether. So you canāt convince him that littering is actually a problem because he never sees it. And if he does see it he knows the magic litter fairies will deal with it.
I think alot of people dont realise how far they have to walk with stuff so when they go home they cant be bothered.Ā I only ever took a backpack tent and sleeping bag.
People at other festivals with similarly long walks seem to manage fine, Boomtown is (relatively speaking) in a significantly better state immediately after the festival, the smaller dance music festivals around the country are pretty much always spotless in my experience and some are quite the trek from car parks. Average age of campers is probably double Reading and Leeds.
The ones I've been to push the 'leave no trace' message pretty hard, but then also don't have the same issues with people trashing everything for the hell of it.
A bit of a worry given that Reading is full of teens, I kinda hoped this would be the one generation particularly conscious of this stuff.
I worked crew for boom this year. I was on site till Wednesday- campsites were fucked. I remember 2019 & it was bad but nothing on that & it wasnt even raining...
I couldn't believe it when I saw those pictures. It looks like the aftermath of a disaster. Or an actual landfill. It's fucking insane. People should be ashamed
I was with a charity yesterday morning trying to get the kids to pick them up. The amount that left EVERYTHING- we saw full backpacks, makeup bags, shoes. So many expensive things that just went to waste. A lot of the tents were destroyed, but a lot werenāt. They just donāt care and itās disgusting
They should have massive industrial bins all over the site marked specifically for single-use tents and other camping equipment. Two in each location, one marked "landfill" and one marked "bonfire".
I have said this before but Reading, Leeds and Creamfields are very young first time festival attendees.
There is no peer pressure to clear your rubbish as they are all doing it.
Been trading Reading since 1990 and it has always been the same.
The only difference is that the tents seem to be bigger but maybe more are sharing them.
But those who try to blame this generation are wrong it has always been like this.
The organisers have just learnt to live with it and the cleanup costs become part of the ticket price.
It is amazing how quickly they can clear it up and leave the site clean and tidy.
But the environmental impact is horrendous but what do you do to try and improve things.
A litter bond is one suggestion but they are already leaving hundreds of pounds of equipment.
How would a Ā£50 bond make any difference.
no they dont, the sheer amount of tents left are not enough for any charity to take in and process, I read somewhere today its enough to fill 3 football fields full of tents...
ābroken window theoryā - if everyone else packed their tents up, you might think twice, but if you canāt be bothered / donāt need it / it didnāt cost much and everyone else has dumped theirs, people that have never littered in their lives wonāt think twice about doing the same!
Ultimately it is a profit making private event where this is the norm with a plan to get rid of it all and there isn't a lot of incentive for people to do the right thing. They could carefully take it down and home, but it would just go in different bin. Very few would be suitable for donation or even using again.
This is predictably the right answer.
The festival enterprise incorporates the site clearance costs, including discarded tents, into ticket prices, meaning everyone pays.
I'm on the Isle of Wight and until a few years ago organisations such as the scouts could retrieve some quality remnants.
Would be worth getting the Council involved. Tents get barcoded and matched to tickets. Tents left behind are subject to FPN for littering. Problem is preventing the bar codes being removed. Needs some thought. But if there is a penalty for being a sketchy bastard maybe that would focus people better.
Very ashamed to say that when I was a teenager I also left a tent at a festival twice.
It never occurred to me that was the wrong thing to do until the festival I was attending annually started using the āleave no traceā rules etc and it then clicked in my head that itās my responsibility and also how wasteful it is to buy a new tent every year or so.
As much as thatās my responsibility- i believe the culture/terminology etc coming from the organisers will make a lot of difference in getting younger people involved as thereās a chance the genuinely havenāt thought about the impact of their actions on the earth/other people.
I got back from a different fest yesterday with my family and i didnāt see a single tent left behind. They make quite a thing of it as I think the previous year they said only 1 tent was left in the field.
I went to beautiful days festival in Devon a few weeks ago, I know it is a smallish festival but I remember the organisers saying every since tent had been packed and taken, and I had to walk ages so it can be done.
I want to know who the fuck feels its okay to leave their camp sites in such a mess. The tents are one thing.. but the amount of garbage im seeing on the ground is fucking disgusting. like seriously, what the fuck people. Clean up your camp sites. The producers should be ashamed of themselves for allowing their guests to come in and leave such a mess.
this would never fly at the events i work at (20 years of multi day EDM camping festival management)
Even during the festival, we were commenting on how much trash was on the ground. It was certainly due to both the amount of people and the age group. We were at another more niche music festival the week before and there was some but hardly any trash on the crowd but it was certainly an older crowd. We do a lot of festivals back in the states and i really thought the heathens at the redneck rock festivals were as bad as it gets but i was sorely mistaken.
It is absolutley appalling seeing that drone video. It is not one or two bad apples but it's the entire community. Yes I know some people take their rubbish away but there is so much left there is obviously a mentality amongst the whole crowd that this is ok.
We were taking the train from Oxford today and came across the site and initially looked like a homeless encampment. There are plenty of festivals that allow camping across US and Canada and I've never seen anything nearly this bad. I am also shocked how people think bad weather and stuff getting stolen rationalizes not being accountable for their mess. So because your stuff was stolen and it was wet you can make someone else clean up your mess? We have camped through wind rain and storms at festivals, Coachella last year, for example, was pretty bad but everyone cleaned up, broke down their broken tents and canopies and piled them up in an area how a civil society should. If you are planning to camp you should be held accountable for that entials, including packing out. If you aren't suited for doing that, don't have experience or time or accomodations on trains, then think about that ahead of time - not retroactive disassociation. In the shopping cart post someone compared such people to animals but I have not seen animals cause harm to the environment like this - even cats dig a hole and cover it up after they poop.
Packing up a cheap tent that will never get used again to carry for 2 hours to walk to a pick up area. Perhaps a better idea would be to create a suitable place to either donate or dispose of useless items.
And how would you enforce that? The security are unable to prevent people nicking from others tents. I have no doubt the expensive tickets for this event cover the cost of the clean up operation.
There are donation sites for tents at reading/leeds. They just donāt get used.
A lot of the tents are left unusable by slashing them or fires or lost elements unfortunately
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u/CattleBasic8867 Aug 31 '26
I think my son's tent got abandoned there last night, as someone had slashed it during the evening and stole his backpack. He arrived home at about 5am this morning, wet filthy and exhausted. Absolute scum