[Closed] Festivals - abandoned tents and rubbish

They shouldn't let them leave without the shit they brought in with them!

Yup, does seem hard to get the message through to some of the kids. 😕

It is bonkers - I was at Glasto about five years ago and the two guys (in their 50s) in the tent next to us freely admitted they would be leaving all their kit and it was all brand new - a big 6 man tent, proper camp beds, sleeping bags etc. We were going to try to get it in our small car but had no space for it. Still, at least the stuff gets collected and redistributed overseas so it isn't exactly going into landfill - people are actively encouraged to at least pack the stuff away rather than just leave it to the festival team though.

We live quite close to Boomtown and the mess afterward I still find shocking. I genuinely don’t remember it being the same attitude to abandoning swathes of rubbish post festival in the late 80s.

Errmmm, before all you middle aged Victor medrews get into full swing, it was your generation that did this

BBC News - The Malvern rave that ended all raves
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hereford-worcester-40001484

Still, at least the stuff gets collected and redistributed overseas so it isn’t exactly going into landfill

That's part of the problem, it's not. I think a few festivals tried that but the sort of crap that gets left behind is useless for actually camping let alone living in a refugee camp. Those single skin tents barely protect your privacy whilst you catch an STI let alone from a cold night in Syria.

But most is going to landfill.
Guy a knew ran a group that collected, for charity, tents etc. It suddenly became a dog fight. Lots of groups wanting Access to the site to get free tickets then strip all valuables from the tents and leave with only good stuff to sell on. Very little going to charities. He reckoned it would have been easier just to bulldoze what was left.

But If they take it home and put it in a bin there it all still ends up in landfill.

This isn't a new thing, I first went to Glasto in 1995 and it looked exactly like that when we left.

The term 'Festival Tent' to me just means 'cheap enough to not worry about when someone falls on it' not a disposable although a lot end up that way.

I can't speak for other festivals, but I assume they work in a similar fashion - they employ legions of people who work (sometimes in exchange for a free ticket and food) to stay behind and tidy up. Usable tents are donated to homeless charities, which is apparently part of the reason why you see so many homeless people now, the tents make them more visible. Litter is collected and where possible recycled and 2 weeks after they event, it's like it never happened.

I would be nice if everyone took everything home with them, but they don't and it's not the end of the world as part of the staggering cost of festival tickets these days covers the tidy up.

There's a awful lot of perfectly good kitchens that end up in landfill too, just because home owners want the latest trend...

Tag the tents with an ultraviolet pen. Link the number to a register. Scan the leftovers, send a bill.

Usable tents are donated to homeless charities, which is apparently part of the reason why you see so many homeless people now,

Which would be fine but apparently there are less than 5000 rough sleepers in England ( https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-45983897) and the article says there are 250,000 tents abandoned annually at festivals. So that's fifty festival tents for every rough sleeper. And if it was a genuine altruistic thing, your pack it up, making sure all the bits were there and donate it, not just stagger away from it. I view that as a guilt alleviating excuse.

People take their kitchens to festivals? Wow. Home comforts eh?

https://m.facebook.com/Glenetivethedirtytruth/

Lots abandoned all over the countryside.

Look like a lot but not really. Maybe about 0.00000000000001% of what goes into landfill every year, if indeed it all does go to landfill. The photo is deliberately framed to make it look like a vast sea of waste to get everyone hot under the collar. Ultimately it keeps people employed picking this stuff up and tidying up, and the event itself generates a lot of revenue for the local economy, some of which could be invested into environmental schemes so the net impact on the environment can be reduced or eliminated, no reason why a synthetic tent can't be recycled. What happens to all the hundreds of thousands of plastic beer and prosecco cups and non-recyclable coffee cups, plastic cutlery that people use at these things?

However you'd have thought that a proper 'festival' tent would be a temporary thing made from some sort of material that is able to be more easily recycled or biodegradable...i don't know, something like those stringy bits you get in banana's but dried out and weaved into some from of fabric, or bamboo strands or something.

Errmmm, before all you middle aged Victor medrews get into full swing, it was your generation that did this

BBC News – The Malvern rave that ended all raves
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hereford-worcester-40001484
/blockquote>

Lots done wrong there (like trespass etc) but not seeing huge amounts of abandoned rubbish in that video).

 

As above, been that way for many years. The majority of young people are thoughtless ****s - always have been, probably always will be. I know I was (although at least we always brought the tents back!)

The photo is deliberately framed to make it look like a vast sea of waste to get everyone hot under the collar.

As I said in the OP - I live near the Boomtown site - no need for a photo, my eyes see what they see every year.

The majority of young people are thoughtless ****

Do young people actually go to these crappy festival things then?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-north-east-orkney-shetland-48201708

Happens all over

Just to prove that nothing is new these days, look up pictures of the aftermath of Woodstock in 1969!!

Jordan sounds like a right little ****t. Oh your legs hurt & you’re too tired to carry your stuff back to the car.....
Carry it in, carry it out you self- entitled little oik!

GRRRR 😡
(Rant over..)

I think a few festivals tried that

They were actively promoting it at Glasto when I was there in 2015.

Jim Morrison's spirit guide in Wayne's world 2

And if it was a genuine altruistic thing, your pack it up, making sure all the bits were there and donate it, not just stagger away from it. I view that as a guilt alleviating excuse.

It's not a altruistic thing, it's a happy by-product of a selfish act. There's no justification here just a fact that's inconveniently opposed to the headline.

Way to go, perhaps?
https://kartent.com/shop/

What happens to all the hundreds of thousands of plastic beer and prosecco cups and non-recyclable coffee cups, plastic cutlery that people use at these things?

Donington has a deposit scheme on beer cups, like 10p or something. It works well, you see kids wombling them with stacks metres high to make a few quid. If you plan on recycling your own then you need to keep a close eye on your empties or some bugger will be off with them.

IIRC someone told me all the abandoned crap from the Reading festival is gathered up to be given to either the homeless or sent off to 3rd world countries/disaster relief efforts.

It's not a stretch to imagine young Seraphina's abandoned popup tent and sleeping bag being put to better use somewhere in West Africa or the Middle east after she's had her post GCSE "experience".

If the middle-classes rampant throwaway culture creates some much needed temporary shelter elsewhere then there is an arguable benefit to it? Discuss...

Last time I went to Glastonbury, we just burned everything cause there was no firewood left! 😆

I don't really see the problem with this anyhow, you pay a fortune for festival tickets, it's up to the organisers to pay for the clean up from those tickets.

ho hum..

Who doesn't think there will be a mess after a 5 day bender with 100k people? 😆

This isn’t a new thing, I first went to Glasto in 1995 and it looked exactly like that when we left.

yep. Although to be fair me and my GFs and a few like-minded mates used in the 80s/early 90s volunteer/work there for Greenpeace litter-picking and/or stay with friends in the Green Future's/maker's areas. We didn't leave it like that. Not at all. Either used big communal canvas tents or took our own small tents home.

I remember smh and feeling like the whole shebang was at first a great idea but rapidly becoming an empty facade for spoiled/consumerist kids playing at being 'right on', with just a few hardcore 'do-gooders'* and environmentalists doing all the 'real' stuff out back. There was definitely an 'us vs them' vibe, and I remember older festival goers speaking about it. We (mates and I) sort of wanted to be like the older festivalgoers/people we met on site, because they seemed cool and considerate, with their wholefood, no-waste, semi-permanent camp setups and socially laid-back attitudes. Many of them were from self-reliance and sustainable living trends/culture from the late 60s into the late 70s. We few 80s kids were johnny-come-lately's with good intentions, yet the big, unstoppable urban and city-dwelling consumer-festy-tide coming behind was the shit we still see today. I remember the old dudes being (most often good-naturedly) skeptical,even cynical of our good-intentions, ie playing nice before we headed back to the conurbations to re-engage with car-culture and supermarkets.

But even back then most my mates back home took the piss out of me because I protested about them throwing litter out of car windows, and correctly disposed of my own litter - so the bar was set low for 'do-gooders' IMO.

Doing 'good' (or at least minimising harm) has long been deeply unfashionable in our culture.

But when did it get to the point that it became fashionable for so many to pay lip-service to doing better? Er, 1993? That sounds about right 🙁

Donington has a deposit scheme on beer cups, like 10p or something. It works well, you see kids wombling them with stacks metres high to make a few quid. If you plan on recycling your own then you need to keep a close eye on your empties or some bugger will be off with them.

At Lakefest they charge an extra £2 for your first pint, which covers the cost of the reusable (plastic) glass. You then use that one for the rest of the weekend. Works well.

If the middle-classes rampant throwaway culture creates some much needed temporary shelter elsewhere then there is an arguable benefit to it? Discuss…

As already stated we (fortunately only have a tiny fraction of the number of rough sleepers to the number of abandoned tents. And the needs of Syrian refugee families are not served in any meaningful need by £19.99 argos tents.

Still, at least the stuff gets collected and redistributed overseas so it isn’t exactly going into landfill – people are actively encouraged to at least pack the stuff away rather than just leave it to the festival team though.

No, the tents don't get carefully packed up and given to homeless people or refugees, they are too badly made for that.

The dumping festival-goers and the mountain bikers who scatter PET drink bottles along their trails are just proof of the hypocrisy of the virtue-signallers who pretend to care about their planet.

convert

Subscriber

Think article made me a bit sad – https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/newsbeat-48184756

We live quite close to Boomtown and the mess afterward I still find shocking. I genuinely don’t remember it being the same attitude to abandoning swathes of rubbish post festival in the late 80s.

First festivals I went to were in the early 90s, and it was messier then than it is now.

I think it gets overlooked that a lot of the kit people use for festivals is intentionally shit and disposable. I have a pretty excellent little tent that I've used for dozens of festivals, but the chances of your stuff getting damaged is pretty high, and an expensive tent invites thieves too. So a huge number, and especially the younger folks, are there in argos tents and the like and carrying everything in ikea bags and basically minimising their costs and their potential losses. None of that's sustainable, whether you take it home or not.

(one of the reasons I could keep mine going, is that I salvaged a load of bags, pegs, groundsheets, even poles and bits of tent over the years to replace worn out or damaged parts of mine)

And when your tent leaks all weekend and your sleeping bag is too cold and everything's covered in mud and you've been paying £5 for a deathburger on top of your £200 for one of the big ones, not only are you not going to want to use it again, you're not going to give too much of a shit about the cost of cleanup, since you've already paid it.

One thing that really bothered me though was when Leeds/Reading introduced their tent disposal points- lovely simple idea, every field had a place you could ditch a packed up tent. And volunteers were clearing up abandoned tents too. And people were actually slashing or burning or jumping on their tents immediately before leaving, literally to stop that from happening. WTF?

And yeah the people that you see abandoning expensive kit are mostly older- for the simple reason, the younger people don't generally have that in the first place.

Last time I went to Glastonbury, we just burned everything cause there was no firewood left! 😆

I don’t really see the problem with this anyhow, you pay a fortune for festival tickets, it’s up to the organisers to pay for the clean up from those tickets.

^ probably trolling?

If not - then you really, really don't get it. Campaign for cheaper tickets vs treat the land and air with contempt, like you're spoiled weapons-grade spoiled brats trapped in the bodies of adults?

Tickets are never so expensive that you get to rape the host. Except in bad horror movies.

As I said in the OP – I live near the Boomtown site – no need for a photo, my eyes see what they see every year.

Yep. Some 3 weeks after Boomtown had finished I cycled past the site and was shocked at the number of tents and rubbish still in situ. All organisors need to get a grip on this and stop pandering to the self-entitled, blinkered punters.

Malvern Rider

Member

Not trolling at all, just got plenty of experience of 5 day benders, and I know cleaning up is a fairly unreasonable thing to expect.

I'm a great advocate of leave no trace. in the context of a fenced of festival, it doesn't apply though.

Do young people actually go to these crappy festival things then?

Dez makes a good point, festivals are for middle-aged bellends as well as young ones.

I find it hard to reconcile this being the same youthful generation pushing the agenda with Extinction Rebellion and the school strikes.

Bit sanctimonious. Young people now are way more environmentally conscious than in my day. Not their fault that society has become so focused on throwaway products.

Not trolling at all

A few Qs then:

1. Do you advocate treating (managed) campsites with the same level of disrespect as you do music-festival sites? (Leave/dump/burn everything?)

Or do you 2. advocate treating managed campsites with the same respect that you claim to advocate for unfenced areas? (Leave no trace?)

3. Also, with regards to burning toxic materials on open fires, where does the 'fence' exist if not simply in your mind?

Tag the tents with an ultraviolet pen. Link the number to a register. Scan the leftovers, send a bill.

I'm sure some people would say that with the cost of festival entry (especially for camping) they are already paying for the clean up - when a ticket costs more than the camping gear, and the food and drink in the venue probably costs as much again I can see how someone thinks little of walking away, especially if they have to endure crappy facilities and a huge treck through mud to queue for an overcrowded bus to take them somewhere. I think this is seosamh77's point. Would I do it? No. But I'm not a typical festival goer. Bear in mind though that there's perhaps 50 tents in the picture from the OP. There were probably 500-1000 tents in the same area the night before. So its 0.5-1% of festival goers being lazy. Just the same as not every school child went on strike over the environment, not every young person left their shit behind. Its also possible that the "we recycle abandoned tents" message means they think they are doing a good thing by walking away.

I'm more concerned that the behaviour then gets replicated in places like Glen Etive because that's what people do when they have a weekend on the beer.

Malvern Rider

Member
Not trolling st all

A few Qs then:

1. Do you advocate treating (managed) campsites with the same level of disrespect as you do music-festival sites? (Leave/burn every trace?)

Or do you 2. advocate treating managed campsites with the same respect that you claim to advocate for unfenced areas? (Leave no trace?)

3. Also, with regards to burning toxic materials on open fires, where does the ‘fence’ exist if not simply in your mind?

Campsites are different, they aren't set up to be specifically for the purpose of people going on a bender, festivals are.. They aren't the same thing.

As for burning stuff, I'm hardly doing it on an industrial scale, so why not...I don't see the moral conundrum that you seem to see there.

well, I've seen all ages leaving tents at festivals. It's not a thing that just teenagers do. In fact I've seen older folk leave waaay more, as they generally seem to need more "luxuries" to get a weekend camping. I know that most of the tents left at Glasto go straight to land fill, which is pretty depressing.

I used to have a nice little tent (in fact I think my Dad used it as well) but it got nicked! so I can see why people tend to buy a cheap one. I do think though, calling them Festival Tents doesn't help as it does suggest that it's a once only use, which is a bit daft.

I've never even considered that the 'festival tent' description might mean single use. Fine for summer use passing out in / being tripped over / broadly keeping the contents dry, but don't take them to Everest base camp because you'll die was always my understanding.

I’ve never even considered that the ‘festival tent’ description might mean single use.

Ditto, thought it was just a marketing tag to flog shit tents.

On another note, I do despair for the youth of today if they can't even handle three or four nights on the sesh and carrying their kit back to the car park without their poor little legs hurting.

Some sort of deposit could work for smaller fests, but it would be next to impossible at big fests like Glasto where you can't even walk between tents in some places. Bad weather makes it worse too; if you are stupid enough to be camping in a sea of mud for 5 days then any tent is going to be shot. Only thing to do is to make it less acceptable. That worked with pissing in the hedge which is much better now and just took a few piss police at key areas. So it means we need to see a lot more of these pictures to spread the guilt.

Youth of today? Every festival I've ever been to since 98 has been a riot at the end up.

It's nothing new, and it ain't going to change.

On another note, I do despair for the youth of today if they can’t even handle three or four nights on the sesh and carrying their kit back to the car park without their poor little legs hurting.

Guess they'll just have to pay a bit extra to have someone else pick up their rubbish then.

Yes it looks real messy and it's a crap attitude from the punters but I'm not sure that 'festival waste' is that high up on the environmental disaster list.

Flame away.

Guess they’ll just have to pay a bit extra to have someone else pick up their rubbish then.

That chicken was already egged upthread.
Or was it an egg getting chickened?

Cretin

In my mailbox from the Cropredy crew yesterday:

'EMBARGO: 9am May 8 2019

Fairport’s Cropredy Convention backs call

to say ‘no’ to single-use tents

Festival-goers urged to take tents home for re-use

Fairport’s Cropredy Convention, Oxfordshire’s longest-established music festival, today backed a campaign to tackle the problem of single-use plastics.

Together with over 60 other music festivals across the UK, Cropredy organisers today called on big retailers such as Argos and Tesco to stop marketing ‘festival tents’ as single-use items.

The Association of Independent Festivals (AIF) estimates 250,000 tents are left at music festivals across the UK. Many festival-goers believe the tents are collected and given to charity but, claims AIF, the majority go to landfill. At an average of 3.5kg each tent is the equivalent of 8,750 plastic straws or 250 cups.

Gareth Williams, director of Fairport’s Cropredy Convention, said: “We are fully behind the AIF ‘Take Your Tent Home’ campaign. We want to see a really significant reduction in the single use of plastic tents.”

Mr Williams said that last year’s Drastic On Plastic initiative had been a great success at Cropredy. “We saw a dramatic reduction of plastic waste at our festival,” he said. By issuing free stainless steel water bottles to crew and artists we cut plastic bottles from over 4,500 to under a hundred. Our real ale bar also replaced 160,000 plastic glasses with a fully compostable alternative and didn’t issue plastic straws. We made similar progress in our backstage catering operation.”

An AIF report, published in 2018, revealed that 9.7% of people attending its member events had ditched a tent during that year’s festival season, equating to an estimated 875 tonnes of plastic waste.

AIF chief Paul Reed said: “We call upon major retailers to stop marketing and selling tents as single-use. AIF launches this campaign to raise awareness of abandoned tents as part of the single-use plastics problem. Festival audiences can reduce their carbon footprint simply by taking their tent home and reusing it.”

Ynot festival this year will refund you a tenner from your ticket price when you return a full bag of rubbish to the allocated area. Nice idea and hopefully it will help.
I've scavenged plenty of stuff from festivals in the past, loads of beers, wellies and even a diesel t shirt, still use one quecha pop up tent to this day for beach days, it will come to Cornwall again this year.
Quite amusingly we were camping last weekend and I took 3 chairs for the 4 of us, "where's my chair" asked dear daughter? Answered by me with a "probably in the field where you left it at ynot last year," she'll not do it again 🤣

Greenman festival has those single use cups, and generally, as people packed up they took all their shit with them.
They should ban those pop up tents. They are a bastard to get back in the packet.

Cretin

Agreed.

Just ban tents and sleeping bags.

Insist on all festival goers staying up all night every night, that's how they seemed to work 25 years ago.

Festivals goers are far too soft these days.

Yep, if kids today spent their money on decent quality class As, they wouldn't need to take shit tents😁

Cretin

Agreed.

All the more so since I dismally failed to post the post after the post I was referring to.
Post post posting petulance.

There’s no excuse for leaving your shit behind for someone else to clear up.

What? You’re too tired because you were off your head for 5 days to pack your crap out? You’re too hungover from drinking cheap piss?

Here’s a thought for you - show some fing restraint & some personal responsibility & carry your crap home! There’s no excuse for leaving your rubbish for someone else to pick up - I don’t give a F how expensive your ticket was......it doesn’t entitle you to be a selfish cock.

#1struleoflife

Do young people actually go to these crappy festival things then?

Astonishing as it may seem, yeah. Still, keeps ‘em off the streets for a few days! 😬

Campsites are different, they aren’t set up to be specifically for the purpose of people going on a bender, festivals are.. They aren’t the same thing.

As for burning stuff, I’m hardly doing it on an industrial scale, so why not… I don’t see the moral conundrum that you seem to see there.

Clearly.

Well if people can't be arsed taking their rubbish home off the hill it's hardly surprising they don't have the energy to remove all their crap at a festival.

It's a general society littering thing. I find it amazing amongst some people I know, colleagues and neighbours just how there's an assumption that it will all be cleaned up after them, and they can't see what the problem is. Culture of convenience is a large part of it.

Take charging for bags at supermarkets and lifetime bags. Should cut down on the bag waste? Nope. Local supermarket and almost everyone is picking up a "bag for life" each time they go, not reusing bags. Then I've seen people throw those bags in the bin and they just pay for another. 5 or 10p for convenience rather than carry a reusable about. Likewise all the plastic packaging on products, not seeing a problem with plastic wrapping on loose veg, and despite some wrappers stating the bag can be recycled (with a bit of effort as they aren't collected with normal recycling), in the bin or goes with an attitude of **** it.

Take charging for bags at supermarkets and lifetime bags. Should cut down on the bag waste?

Yes. Plastic bag sales in England have dropped 86% since the introduction of the charge and plastic bag marine litter has halved in the same time.

Insist on all festival goers staying up all night every night, that’s how they seemed to work 25 years ago.

🙂

Identify miscreants.

Offer them a choice of carrying their stuff out, being burnt in a big Wicker Man or lucky dip from the confiscated acid bag.

Kids today eh?

Clearly.

Do tell, what's the conundrum?

There’s no excuse for leaving your rubbish for someone else to pick up – I don’t give a F how expensive your ticket was……it doesn’t entitle you to be a selfish cock.

+1

You've spent all weekend having fun and now you're too tired? F*** off.

Plastic bag sales in England have dropped 86% since the introduction of the charge

Odd that I rarely see people take their own bag into a supermarket, especially the small ones. Always grabbing a fresh bag at the self scan, and at a person checkout a bag is generally asked for. They're often surprised when I present my own bag.

Maybe it's just where I live or the times I go.

Again though, I've seen plenty of the reusable chucked away, even littered.

But If they take it home and put it in a bin there it all still ends up in landfill.

This.

The photo is deliberately framed to make it look like a vast sea of waste to get everyone hot under the collar.

This.

I’m a great advocate of leave no trace. in the context of a fenced of festival, it doesn’t apply though.

This.

There’s no excuse for leaving your shit behind for someone else to clear up.

Every Tuesday night I leave my * out for someone else to clear up. I pay for it with my rates. In the same way festival goers pay for the clearup of their * out of their entry fee.

Maybe it’s just where I live or the times I go.

I think this is maybe an issue. I read an article about reusable bag adoption that basically said that adoption of money saving (and environmentally conscious) best practice in terms of reuse was far higher in leafy suburbs than lower socio economic areas and also that some shops and some areas have more planned shopping trips whilst others (they highlighted metropolitan areas where a lot of folk do multiple impulse weekly shops in 7-11 type stores on their way home from work on foot have not. In planned shopping areas bag reuse is far higher.

It's a mute point however - reusable bags are a false dawn. It takes 140 odd reuses of a bag for life before it breaks even over modern biodegradable carrier bags. Very few bags for life make it to the magic number.

Every Tuesday night I leave my * out for someone else to clear up. I pay for it with my rates. In the same way festival goers pay for the clearup of their * out of their entry fee.

Do you liberally discard it on the road in front of your house or do you perchance place it in some sort of handy bin on wheels?

I do wonder if the people that excuse this behaviour as 'well they've paid for it so why shouldn't they?' are also the people that think it's ok to decorate their area of the cinema with popcorn and discarded wrappers. After all the cinema pays for cleaners so it's in your rights. Or walk out of hotel rooms having left your very own interpretation of Tracey Emin's bed as a calling card- you paid for a room so you have every right no?

I think this maybe an issue. I read an article about reusable bag adoption that basically said that adoption of money saving (and environmentally conscious) best practice in terms of reuse was far higher in leafy suburbs than lower socio economic areas and also that some shops and some area have more planned shopping trips whilst others (they highlighted metropolitan areas where a lot of folk do multiple impulse weekly shops in 7-11 type stores on their way home from work on foot have not.

I use only reusable bags but according to The Infinite Monkey Cage the break even point is at 150 uses and I don't think they get that many uses before they get torn or lost. Plus the wife buys new reusables whenever she forgets bags so we must have bought dozens of them which go straight to landfill because there's only so many bags you can store. Plus we have to buy bin liners now, when before we used carrier bags. So in terms of conserving the planets resources I'm unconvinced. In terms of litter reduction they're brilliant.

Do you liberally discard it on the road in front of your house or do you perchance place it in some sort of handy bin on wheels?

Bin on wheels. That's the agreed system. At Glasto, within the fences, it seems they pay staff to clear stuff up wherever it goes.

I do wonder if the people that excuse this behaviour as ‘well they’ve paid for it so why shouldn’t they?’ are also the people that think it’s ok to decorate their area of the cinema with popcorn and discarded wrappers. After all the cinema pays for cleaners so it’s in your rights. Or walk out of hotel rooms having left your very own interpretation of Tracey Emin’s bed as a calling card- you paid for a room so you have every right no?

That's my point. If someone litters in a Cinema it will get collected by staff paid to collect it. Dumping litter in a contained area where it's expected and staff are immediately available to clear up just isn't the same as dumping litter elsewhere where it will remain for years. Unless I'm mistaken part of running a festival/cinema is clearing up after people, it's literally part of the service.

That's not to say it's a good thing, clearly if everyone disposed of their rubbish properly Cinemas/Festivals could reduce staff and reduced staff which might be good for the environment. (Would it though? Or would that saved cash just be spent somewhere else in the economy which would also be bad for the environment?)

The photo is deliberately framed to make it look like a vast sea of waste to get everyone hot under the collar.

This.

As I have said previously living next to Boomtown you can see the site from the road. That photo barely does it justice. Yes, in a couple of weeks it is immaculate (I think the site is being used for a toughmudder this weekend). Tbh it's not the littering that I find worse but the waste and consumerism of walking away from perfectly serviceable tents and camping chairs etc because they can't be arsed to carry them back to their cars. Something is very ****ed up in our society when we have that attitude.

Still, at least the stuff gets collected and redistributed overseas so it isn’t exactly going into landfill –

I take it you didn't read the linked article? That mistaken belief is one of the major issues - people think it's fine to leave because it gets reused. it doesn't

My first Glasto was 91 and I didn't come round on the Monday until mid afternoon by which point my mate had managed to drive his car up next to the tent (in the top part of the Pyramid field, in front of the farm). It was smaller and less secure then!. There was very little stuff being left behind.

5 or 6 years ago we were there until Monday night and the amount of stuff left was staggering. We were waiting for others to sleep off Sunday night and spent the day scavenging. Good chairs, Croc Wellies, a fair bit of food - we took as much as we could carry along with our own stuff). There were guys going round scavenging beer and there was enough they were leaving the cooking lager behind (there were also people filling tents with camping gas and throwing on a match for that proper mad max feel. Every so often there woudl be a muffled 'boof'). It had been a really wet year and muddy stuff means peopel dump more (we got out of the car park quickly but others near us had been stuck there all day).

it's partly attitude but it's a lot to do with cheap disposable chinese consumer junk. Tents and all the camping kit are massively cheaper in real terms than they were in 1990. It's tough to even buy good ones - when we were looking to replace our old North Face tent the new version was basically the same price as we'd paid 15 years+ earlier but was worse quality. (Yes a few exceptions - we eBayed a Hilleberg for more than we'd paid for it 10 years before....)

The stance of the festival organisers is rubbish (ahem). They just don't want the cost of landfill falling to themselves and want to externalise it to local authorities (wherever the removed crap is eventually dumped en-route home).

waste and consumerism of walking away from perfectly serviceable tents and camping chairs etc because they can’t be arsed to carry them back to their cars

Well yeah, single use of anything is a crime, but if you need a tent once in the blue moon and you have no where to store it the only other option is to give it away to someone who will use it, and it sounds like supply of tents is way higher than demand just after festivals.

Compared to flying a load of bands to the UK I suspect the waste binned tents is trivial. Possibly also compared to the environmental costs of doing an alternative activity to Glasto because you don't want to buy a tent for one use.

My guess is the other main reason tents are abandoned is people are just to ill/wasted to pack them up, and I'm really not sure how you address that.

I think part of the problem is the single use type festival kit that is sold in supermarkets and the like. You can pick up a 'tent', sleeping bad & matt for under £20! You spend more than that in a day on food, let alone drinks. It's a throw away society driven by price and quality.
Having spent £400 to go to a festival for a weekend they just want to get home, shower & sleep. They don't care about £20 worth of kit that stinks is damp and has already started to rip.

I remember being out on the bike on Scout Moor one day about 12-15 years ago and coming across an open tent containing an airbed and a sleeping bag and other detritus, hidden in a dip near the quarry. I was actually quite concerned and wondered if somebody had got lost or come to a nasty end in the quarry then decided it was probably somebody who had been having some kind of personal crisis and had wandered off home leaving everything behind. Soon afterwards we drove past the site of a festival near Staveley and saw the abandoned tents and I realised that what I had seen was the future.

It’s always been the same. I worked Womad and Reading in the mid 90’s stage building. We’d have a good old scavenge at the end and get a new wardrobe for the year. I should image more gets thrown away now as middle agers go to festivals a lot more and have bigger £ to spend on consumables. Last big festival was Green Man for me. God it was dull bar about 3 bands.

“My guess is the other main reason tents are abandoned is people are just to ill/wasted to pack them up, and I’m really not sure how you address that.”

I do.

Don’t get in such a state that you can’t carry your shit home with you.

Fing simples!

Don’t get in such a state that you can’t carry your shit home with you.

We're talking about other people's ****, not ours.

Don’t get in such a state that you can’t carry your shit home with you.

No need. There are toilets at most festivals, you know. Usually, the organisers clear them up at some point.