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I read this article, and i was shocked to learn that 1/3 of tents at UK festivsls are discarded! How can this be? https://www.cnn.com/ukmusicfestival-waste-cardboard-tents-sustainable-hnk-c2e-spc-intl/index.html
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I’ve never seen one discarded at a festival but I go to smaller ones where people generally don’t fuck around slacking off on cleanup and the majority are working class folks who don’t have money or taste for such stupidity.
most if not all festivals I got to in the US have very little camping equipment left behind, this is crazy to me
If you traveling to any fest and buy a tent with the plan to leave it, be a decent human and donate your tent to a local charity on your way out.
How do you fuck up a tent so bad you can’t pack it up?
I went to Rhythm and Alps in NZ in 2020-2021, and the amount of waste I saw leaving the festival on Monday morning was insane. People left everything from tents to sleeping bags, air mattresses and even new pairs of shoes. It was absolutely eye opening to just how rich or lazy people must be that they are happy to throw everything away. At the entrance staff were collecting massive piles of camping gear sorted, they said they would be donating it but I didn’t quite believe it to be honest. All I kept thinking was how good it would be to advertise the free camping gear for people to come and pick through after these festivals.
Back when I spent entire summers just going to festivals I’d always stay until Monday for clean up. Great way to up grade gear or score something almost new.
It’s terrible how much is left. Tents , coolers, full beers, duffle bags of cash, poop buckets, cars…
I guess if you’re that hung over it’s ok to leave your trash for someone else to deal with.
I have seen a bunch of broken easy-ups and abandoned tents at every fest I have ever been to (usa). But, certainly not 1/3.
If you fly to a festival, I may be cheaper to buy a cheap walmart tent and throw it away, than to pay for extra baggage.
I think the main difference is people don’t go camping for fun in the wilderness as much as people in North America. So while North Americans will pick up tents that are rugged and multi-use, a lot of people in the UK attending festivals are picking up tents that they might use, what, once a year, for fair weather conditions? And the market has catered for that with flimsy shit.
Seems to be quite a new thing really. Since festivals have gone more mainstream in the UK, many have attracted a new kind of dickhead festival goer. Some are just glorified stag weeknds.
I volunteer for a group that educates people at festivals about reusing tents at festivals, behaviours are changing slowly but not fast enough. Had one guy who we were chatting to as he was throwing his tent away because it was “broken” everything was sliding to the bottom of the tent he said… he was camped on the slope of a hill…
if your tent cost you £15 fom Tesco you can afford to leave it behind. Most tents are treated as disposable objects.
My fav festival in the UK is never left a mess the majority of people take everything including rubbish with them. They also have donation spots so if you don’t want to take your stuff home you can leave it there and it goes somewhere useful.
There’s no source in that article for her one in three claim.
It’s an odd claim to make with no evidence.
Glastonbury (250k) says 99% of people take their tents.
Shambala (15k) regularly say they have 0 tents left behind.
Download (100k) had more tents than usual left behind this year but it was no way near 1/3 of all tents.
Reading (90k) is known to be bad for tents left, I would think 1/3 is too high but wouldn’t necessarily be shocked if it was that.
Reading alongside Leed (80k) and creamfields (70k) are probably the only ones where it might be that high but they’re more than off set by bigger and smaller festivals with better customers who take tents home.
Basically it’s a nonsense statistic so they can sell their own “eco-friendly” tents.
Dead spiders
Only time I’ve seen shelters left behind was after a big storm rolled through and there was a pile of destroyed canopies. Tents can be had for cheap (less than $50), but poor taste to litter, not to mention how wasteful it is – that is a lot of material and energy for a 1 time use?!
Holy shit UK festival goers are absolutely abhorrent human beings
I believe it. I was at Electric Forest in the US this year and a brief but kinda strong storm passed through one day and a lot of people’s cheap Walmart/Target tents couldn’t handle the wind and broke. I saw a lot of salvageable tents but I think when people saw one pole break they just threw the whole tent away. Tragic waste of money and resources
USA is culturally much more experienced with the outdoors and camping than the UK.
There was a period in the mid tens on a German metal festival where that was common too.
Noticably it was for a huge part the cheap self building Aldi tents which were on sale earlier that summer.
Nowadays you see nothing of that. And broken tents are thrown at the garbage disposal sites instead of just left there.
I think generally the crowd got older, and you see more big expensive tents, not small cheap ones you can afford.
Also the organizer appealed heavily to the guests.
On another rock festival I was almost half the tents were Left standing, but that was after a heavy storm that broke a lot of shit and led to the cancelation of it.
Probably just from Reading and Leeds
My tents are usually pretty costly setups from REI, so I am not leaving them anywhere. You rarely see abandoned tents at any of the festivals I have gone to over the years. If a tent or EZ up is demolisted by bad weather, it is put into a rubbish tip or collected from a designated area.
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My partner and myself been travelling europe and have bought and thrown out tents for multiple festivals along the way as we cant travel with the tent but we always pack up the tent and put in in the bin.. most people i’ve seen will do this as well
I’ve been to 5 different festivals and 2/5 I had to throw away a tent due to wind damage.
It definitely wasn’t that high but I have worked clean vibes after Bonnaroo and people definitely left some equipment behind. Generally chairs and pop up sun shades not tents but I’d say of the campgrounds I cleaned at least 1 out of 10 left it a total mess
That’s absurd. Take your shit home. It’s reusable until it’s completely broken. Holes/rips can be repaired or in some way remedied unless it’s a huge hole. Sometimes you gotta get creative with your gear.
Yes definitely. I’ve cleaned up after festivals and people leave behind tents and so much trash, camping gear etc
A certain amount is due to arrests. People who get arrested aren’t able to go pack up camp
But that doesn’t explain everything
My experience is mostly from Coachella. What I’ve noticed is that the price/situation plays a factor in what happens the Monday after.
There are a lot of international visitors that camp at the polo fields. The cost of an EZ-up, tent, cooler, etc., is less than the cost of a hotel for the weekend. Also, considering that these festival goers might have a flight to catch home. In this situation, leaving your supplies is the best solution. I’ve scavenged some perfectly good items in my day.
I wouldn’t say that 1/3 of campers leave their stuff. I might put it at 1/10, but that number feels generous.
Lol check out what is left at burning man even after the clean up crew
It’s litter. If everybody was those people our planet would be even more fucked. Pick up your shit
According to Beans on Toast
[Take Your Shit Home With You](https://youtu.be/R_5ahsse54E?si=2G-g8Ffkqn_EdaVW)
It used to be pretty bad in the UK for tents being left behind but is much better over the past 5+ years following Glastonbury doing love the farm leave no trace campaigns.
Nearly all tents are brought home from the UK festivals that I go to. (Glastonbury, Standon Calling and Small World)
I suspect most of these tents are at Glasto and Reading / Leeds.
Smaller festivals most people tend to pick up after themselves. The cost of tents these days I certainly never leave mine
This probably depends on the festival and the crowd it attracts. I’m sure the juggalo’s at the gathering probably leave all sorts of tents and garbage everywhere. Electric forest is pretty good about it though. The types of drugs present also probably have a profound effect to. I can only imagine that there is a vast difference between a jam band festival filled with spunions and a EDM festival filled with a bunch of people on molly and ketamine when it comes to this.
I was gifted 3 tents after Burning Man this year. All from Europeans not wanting to take them home. Understandable due to flying.