Hate the farm, leave all your shit behind

[Kill]

The site was disgusting, the people next to us even decided to destroy all their tent and chairs so they couldn't even be salvaged. Not one to put two and two together but there seemed to be a lot of teenage first timers about this year!

Just to add the only time I heard a member of campsite crew ask if a tent had been left behind was so he could fill his ruck sack with left behind beer left next to it.

[milly16]

The pyramid stage was the worse i've ever seen it after Beyonce,it was upsetting to see.

The task for the litter pickers on monday morning would of been awful.I've litter picked there before and it's hard work at the best of times but to see the mess that evening.

Thank you recycling crew,not enough thanks goes to you guys.

[gooner1990]

We camped right at the very top of Dairy Ground, 30 of us all of us took our tents etc back home, and all the rubbish was put in a pile in the middle of our campsite.

As we walked back down through Dairy and then Park Home was shocking to see some of the "ghost town" campsites around (11.30am ish)

On a seperate note, we were camped right by the toilets, and although it didn't smell as much as I thought it would, most of the portaloos were virtually useless due to the disgusting state they were left in. Not sure whether to blame punters or the cleaners. But why is it people feel the need to shit all over the seat and then stuff half a forests worth of toilet paper in there.

[guypjfreak]

The pyramid stage was the worse i've ever seen it after Beyonce,it was upsetting to see.

The task for the litter pickers on monday morning would of been awful.I've litter picked there before and it's hard work at the best of times but to see the mess that evening.

Thank you recycling crew,not enough thanks goes to you guys.

[DTichborne]

I've been 15 times and never left a thing there that wasn't in a rubbish or recycling bag. I will say that I have sympathy for the people who had shitty sludge going through their tents - if that happened to me, I'd have left that. I saw the part of the site in question. If at the end of the weekend, the entire site was clear apart from that one part, there wouldn't be an issue. But leaving anything under any other circumstances is utterly unforgivable.

On the other point, since the addition of the superfence, and indeed the urinals, there has never been any kind of significant queue for the loos anywhere, ever. Maybe 5 mins for the ones near the big stages after an act plays and that's it. I was as appalled as everyone else at people pissing on the inner walls of the urinals - the story about the security guard shaking it from the other side made me laugh.

[yasgursfarmhand]

For me,one incident I saw summed up the way things are going.Two late teen sloaney girls giggling in front of us at the lock ups at the bottom of Pennards asking for a loo roll.Whilst waiting for someone outside the longdrops nearby,I saw said girls emerge from the same,one asking the other,in somewhat gruff tone,"what the f*ck shall i do with this" then proceeded to throw the barely used loo roll into the mud.

That's it in a nutshell. There's laziness,then just nastiness.

Edited June 28, 2011 by yasgursfarmhand

[Completewasters]

If people are happy to ditch £50-100 tents without a second thought then they arent packing it and taking it anywhere for a tenner! I dont know what the solutiom is. We have brought home chairs and airbeds we could easily afford to dump because thats how we think, others happily dump because thats the way they think. I honestly dont know how you can change it.

[Completewasters]

I still wonder how much of a 'big issue' it really is to need to be changed.

I suspect the vast majority (ie say 90%, the stuff that would be avoided if most made a good effort - in reality of course SOME would still be left) is cleared up in a day or two and the costs are easily absorbed in the total income.

I get the feeling it's something they've latched on to for the sake of doing something - which is what this year's greenpeace thingy felt like too, actually.

On the 'eco' stuff, anyone remember the biodegradable tent pegs?

Edited June 28, 2011 by Completewasters

[eFestivals]

whole process takes at least 2 months...

also glastonbury has the chance to address 175,000 people about littering, recycling/reuse, social responsiblity, wastefulness, the negative consequences of a disposal society

so far they haven't 'latched on' hard enough

i reckon the festival gets too much of the shit about the mess - after all, it's not the festival that makes that mess but people!

The festival asks (again, and again, and again!) that people take their stuff home. People ignore the festival. Where does the responsibility of one end and the other's begin?

[Burrows]

Both the tents we took with us this year were salvaged from a previous Glastonbury.

We left Sunday night, so we weren't sure which tents were abandoned, and which had people still sleeping in them.

It probably would be a bit of a moneyspinner taking back abandoned tents, chairs and other stuff though - as well as food and drink, but it's hard enough work carrying your own stuff back, let alone someone else's, and then fitting it all in the car too. Another year we might try and see just how many we can take back.

I also saw the tents that had a river of mud flowing through them, which I could understand abandoning - though really you should be more careful than to camp downhill from a water tap.

[timbrass]

How recyclable are tents, chairs, airbeds etc?

If they can genuinely be recycled then there is already a partial economic solution in place - part of the ticket costs pays for litter pickers. Yes it looks ugly but I've walked round the farm a few months afterwards and you would hardly know the festival had taken place.

If tents etc can't be recycled (which I suspect is the case) then perhaps there should be a tax on tents/chairs/airbeds on the basis that they are mostly used for festivals (whether by the government (hmmm) or by a deposit/refund scheme by the festival - I admit hard to manage).

The other option is to reward good behaviour. So perhaps anyone who collects say 10 or 20 complete tents on the Monday gets preference for tickets the next year (based on Registration number) or perhaps gets access to a restricted "green" camping area with more space and the use of free tents left the year before - perhaps knowing they can turn up on Thursday PM and still be in a prime spot.

It looks like people need an economic incentive to behave properly - why not use the scarcity of tickets as a lever? Trade 6 hours hitting "refresh" for 3 hours collecting tents.....

I was struck by one slogan on an installation on the railway line "A bargain is only a bargain if you need it". Glastonbury only highlights what we do all year - buy cheap chinese crap (Tesco's has whole aisles dedicated to it) and throw it away....

I was in a campervan and would rather piss in my own wellies than in a stream but I was pleased that my 3 teenagers brought back all the tents/airbeds I set up for them on the Wednesday.

[bumpy_capers]

So perhaps anyone who collects say 10 or 20 complete tents on the Monday gets preference for tickets the next year (based on Registration number) or perhaps gets access to a restricted "green" camping area with more space and the use of free tents left the year before - perhaps knowing they can turn up on Thursday PM and still be in a prime spot.

[Spindles]

i reckon the festival gets too much of the shit about the mess - after all, it's not the festival that makes that mess but people!

The festival asks (again, and again, and again!) that people take their stuff home. People ignore the festival. Where does the responsibility of one end and the other's begin?

[geebus]

whole process takes at least 2 months...

also glastonbury has the chance to address 175,000 people about littering, recycling/reuse, social responsiblity, wastefulness, the negative consequences of a disposal society

so far they haven't 'latched on' hard enough

[Completewasters]

i reckon the festival gets too much of the shit about the mess - after all, it's not the festival that makes that mess but people!

The festival asks (again, and again, and again!) that people take their stuff home. People ignore the festival. Where does the responsibility of one end and the other's begin?

[Completewasters]

I think they call them the litter crew.

Edited June 28, 2011 by Completewasters

[rabid]

i reckon the festival gets too much of the shit about the mess - after all, it's not the festival that makes that mess but people!

The festival asks (again, and again, and again!) that people take their stuff home. People ignore the festival. Where does the responsibility of one end and the other's begin?

[Pipine]

It's shocking that so many people think its acceptable to leave behind a load of stuff.. there should definitely be some incentive to pack it and take it away, maybe a £50 deposit which you get back after the event if you're seen to be leaving the site with a normal amount of stuff? Difficult to judge I guess.. The festival would gain a bit of interest from hanging on to everyones £50 for a few months too which could go towards clearing anything left behind.

Maybe the real solution is to attract the right kind of festival goer.. theres definitely too many these days that don't have the right attitude..

[eFestivals]

You could take some responsibility yourself and stop selling stuff that you know for certain will just end up littering the countryside.

Like everything, the responsibility is with the person who litters and no one else.

Are there four people in that pointless facebook group yet?

[Completewasters]

Like everything, the responsibility is with the person who litters and no one else.

Are there four people in that pointless facebook group yet?

Edited June 28, 2011 by Completewasters

[danvb]

I think if your happy to ignore and disrepect the eavis's wishes by leaving your cr*p then you shouldnt turn up tbh.

does the u2,coldplay beyonce pop headliners attract a different type of crowd who are just plain c*nts on the whole?

do they have a drop off point of unwanted tents and airbeds there?,they do at leeds where you can just drop your tent off in a big recycling bin(though people still leave tents at camp)

Although in some campsite areas there arent enough toilets or there not close enough,you dont wana actually pee your pants rushing to try and pee in a portacabin or longdrop in campsites,i just had to struggle and hold it in while slowly trudging long distances to pee/wait in line with my bladder ready to burst!.

[swell]

Not read the whole thread coz my brain don't work! but it was obvious Monday morning the amount a tents and camping gear being left behind, was far worse than the past two years. A group next to ours were happy to leave two nearly new £150-£200 pound tents that i had seen in go outdoors this season, f**k knows who can afford that on top of there tickets and booze etc! What i was more shocked at was the shit left behind on the pyramid stage after Beyonce i left at the beginning of Pendulum with a bin bag full of our cans,news papers and fag buts etc, assuming that everyone else would do the same. Walked back at half 12 and was sad to see what looked like a landfill site and not a field. If these c**ts cant be arsed to pick up a paper cup there is no chance there gonna carry home cheap tents chairs sleeping bags etc. Cant see that ever changing which is very sad

[abdoujaparov]

I packed up my tent and as much rubbish in a bag as I could, but unfortunately Glastonbury do nothing to help people here. We had to search around for ages on the Friday for a bin bag, there were no bins near us and when that got filled up we had no option other than to leave rubbish on the ground beside the bag. The bins in the arenas were constantly overflowing with nobody to empty them.

I think people will be much more environmentally friendly if the organisers make it easy for people to do. Let's be honest, everyone has the best intentions but at 9am on Monday mornign after a heavy night, 80% of people aren't going to go on the search for a bin bag. Whereas if they were freely available, along with "tent dumps" maybe, I think you would have found a lot more of the tents / rubbish cleared away.

I agree the site looks a mess, but for the majority of people there was nowhere to throw your tent/rubbish away!

[rexclark]

Pennard's was disgusting on Monday morning. It's a damn shame but IMO there's nothing the festival can do. Sadly some people just don't give a shit and no matter how much you drum it into these arseholes they'll still leave their shit because they plain just don't care.

[Miss_Boo]

sorry, but this is largely nonsense...stop trying to blame the festival for the selfishness of the punters

if you want bin bags, buy some and take them with you...there is no reason, not a single one, for leaving your tent behand, so why should there be "tent dumps"? It's your tent, it's your responsibility, dont be selfish and try to palm it off on someone else. And the "bins are full" excuse just doesn't stack up...I lost count of the number of times I saw people just fling stuff on the ground, and what about the tables in the Park stacked with crap within feet of empty bins?

No, the reality is that a proportion of the punters are selfish, unthinking twats