5,000 tents discarded

[autoinflate]

excellent stuff oracles.

now come on, give us more details about the 'goodies' you find on tat monday

[Oracles]

Aye, poor sods seem to be treated like a chain gang at times, they do such a blinding job with the daily stage clean ups and they are largely volunteers who have had to put down a £200 deposit! There were a great deal of continental folk doing the pick this year, Polish, French, Spanish, Portuguese and even a family from Georgia were camped in our field after the festival ended and the real litter pick began.

I watched in open mouthed amazement as a bus load of young volunteers arrived and were being shouted at as soon as they stepped of the bus. I felt so glad at the time to be part of the traditional clean up crew.

[TheNewUnion]

Yep, please share. I'm always quite taken with the idea of tatting a few bits on Monday, until I wake up on Monday and just want to get home. Would be interesting to hear what's left behind.

[Oracles]

Last year my best and most handy bit 'o' tat was a Gerber multitool, I live in the Hills of Wales so it has come in handy many times. In years gone by I've gone all out and spent the whowl day gathering cans of alcohol, it's largely pisswasser but we would each gather maybe 500-1000 cans of all denominations then after the work was finished, take them back to my mates in Bristol, clean them up, chill them and then go to St Pauls carnival and make a bob or two.

Some folks tat only for discarded clothing, we find expensive gear that has been worn once, slighly muddies and then chucked to the side, a quick run through the washers sorts the wheat from the chaff and hey ho, no need to spend on clothing for a good while.

For those creative types amongst us, and I often spot them, as if browsing through a second hand cloth stall, gleaning items that they can repair or enhance to sell on in their line of business. We're not all crusty vagabonds you know, there is actually a great deal of talent and skills amongst these folk.

[frostypaw]

I'm not sure what exciting things people are expecting... this year I mostly saw - though some bits from last year too

all the camping equipment under the sun - every size and shape of tent, though i've not seen a proper bell tent or the fancy collapsing frame type left yet

sleeping bags, airbeds by the acre, rollmats and lilos. pillows - inflatable and real. clothes usually pretty tatty - torn onesies....

tables, chairs, trollies, hobs and gas (though usually only the briefcase types as they're the casual camper type) water carriers

and wellies and boots - lovely pair of chainsaw boots i found this year, had no use of though and there's always a fear about why they were discarded (things run down legs) - shoes. gaiters. usually mud-encrusted

food by the shedload - noodles and frankfurters seemed this years specials. Loads of cereal bars - actually quite a good call. Tonnes of cans of beans. whole crates of beer and cider, and near-cider seemed to be plenty of wrongbow dark fruits around. many many boxes of white wine rendered undrinkable within 1 hour of leaving the fridge at home. Shitloads of tonic water this year - mostly slimline yuk or I woulda downed that cracking wake up juice

PALLETWRAP! Which made me very happy. Bungee cords, cargo nets, tarpaulins

Found wallets, cameras, stacks of credit cards separated from wallet that had made it home, phone chargers, led strips and controllers, car batteries, retro boom boxes (not in years) and iPod docks. Prescription drugs, non-prescription drugs, both mixed together in a terrifying bottle we threw away.

Loads of unburnt firewood this year. A load of rubbish if you're already kitted out but always chances to upgrade. We upgraded two chairs this year from fabric hitched at the back to the sort with plastic to catch the uprights and replaced my mates hilariously exploding self-inflator with two thinner lighter fancier types that fitted into the same space. Last year three tents, an 8m flagpole and enough codeine that we've not bought anything but ibuprofen since then

ps. i forgot there was a bell tent in 07 in big ground. the guy who left it came on here a few days after the festival to ask how he should go about going back to collect it now it had dried out

Edited July 6, 2014 by frostypaw

[Oracles]

I find myself going for the useful and practical nowadays, unused cordage from discarded tents, unused tarp's and packs of unopened batteries are always a happy find for me, it can save me a small fortune over the winter when we get 3 day power cuts or are snowed in. I mean, it's always nice to make an honest buck from the effort that is put in. I'm not joking when I say that if you really go for it then Tat Monday is one of the most physically demanding days of the year as we have to lug it all uphill to our camp and then repeat the process untill you are either literally unable to go another foot or are too inebriated from your choice tatted beer to continue!

[Oracles]

Yeah, the amount of mystery powder we find can come in handy, even if it aint your thing then it always comes in handy to trade with someone else.

[Oracles]

Me and my tatting buddy were mooching around the pyramid stage one year, after the last performance, when he found one of those walking canes that had a concealed sword type blade! Granted, It was a cheap 'n' nasty tourist jobbie from India but non the less a possibly lethal and most certainly concealed bladed article.

[giantkatestacks]

walked through Pyramid at about 7.30am on the Sunday morn on the way to the showers. There were about 40-50 volanteers all litter picking around the tv box, with a guy co-ordinating them by mega phone.

Thats weird I never saw Maurice with a megaphone and theres 300 of us in the Pyramid Crew. We didnt split up into small groups this year, just formed a huge unit and moved across the field in big sweeps.

We work for a charity and so we pay the deposit of the ticket price but then the charity gets paid for each hour of our shifts. Small charities too so it really makes a difference.

[Thearg]

I bought my first pair of walking boots at a wet Glastonbury from a stall run by travellers,they were second hand Brashers for twenty quid,well they were all twenty quid,piles of them you had to rumage through.

I got a pair that were nearly brand new.I presumed they had just been cleaned up and reproofed from last years and other festivals from people tatting.

I was well happy,dry feet all weekend and they lasted for years.

A good service provided.

Edited July 6, 2014 by Thearg

[Oracles]

I was informed by a fellow tat meister about a great pile of army surplus boots that had been left by one of the surplus stalls. The look on my birds face as i was given this info told me, in no uncertain terms, that I was under no circumstances to go hunting for this pile of leathery tat and that if boots suddenly started appearing in or around our truck, then she would be disappearing from our truck!

[waynewdk]

Thats weird I never saw Maurice with a megaphone and theres 300 of us in the Pyramid Crew. We didnt split up into small groups this year, just formed a huge unit and moved across

the field in big sweeps.

We work for a charity and so we pay the deposit of the ticket price but then the charity gets paid for each hour of our shifts. Small charities too so it really makes a difference.

Could have been more. I had my head down I was in a bad way. Definately someone on a megaphone, as he said "right can we now move over to that area there please"

[JamesT977]

Bagged up two tents this year from my group of 5, one that we took last year too so has now been used at two festivals. Cleaned up all the rubbish we had at the end. Gave my wellies into the steward area that takes them in Pylon Ground because there was nothing wrong with them just realised this year they were too small for me. We then took two bags of rubbish to the bag point and left a half empty one closed where our tents were because we had to rush for the coach. Felt a little guilty about leaving that bag but we had little time left and had no way of carrying it, the way i see it was it was still bagged up and not left everywhere.

[Yoghurt on a Stick]

This is tatastic. I am having one of my moments just thinking about all these discarded items.

Away from the festival I often look in skips for stuff etc. My extraordinarily nosey neighbour said to my wife recently that our back garden looks like Steptoe & Son's yard. He did not say it in a kind way. It was more of a signal for us to do as he says and clean it up just like his garden is. Well fuck him, he hasn't seen nothing yet.

I did have one piece of luck this year on the way out from the festival. This bloke walked up to me and asked if I wanted his brand new stack truck, as he couldn't fit it in the car. So, I am one stack truck up. The only thing I can think of is that he must have been taking an additional person back from the festival than he had on the way in. Otherwise, where did the room go in the car which housed his stack truck on the way to the festival?

I suppose at a long shot there could be some sort of time / space worm hole thingy in the vehicle, which must have shifted a whack on entry to the festival.

[ICGenie]

Yep, please share. I'm always quite taken with the idea of tatting a few bits on Monday, until I wake up on Monday and just want to get home. Would be interesting to hear what's left behind.

Same here. Our tent (a faithful servant of four years and many festivals) got fell on and broken so I would have loved to have had a shop around for a new one but just didn't have the energy. I'm also not sure how long something should be empty before it's considered tattable!

For the record, we took down our broken tent and left it with the rubbish bags. Not ideal but I hope that's considered acceptable!

[Swine_Glasto2014]

How is the site looking now Oracles

[Oracles]

Well yesterday as I trundled towards the Red gate on my final journey from the farm I looked around and with a warm if slightly knackerd glow saw the yellowy green of recovering fields that had untill recently been the scene of some of the hardest partying on the planet!

I consider myself one of the lucky ones who get to see and sometimes explore the site before the rivers of human traffic come pouring through the gates on the Wednesday and the once lush green of the recently cut fields become a patchwork of brightly coloured tents and flags flapping in the wind.

In a nutshell there is probably only the fine pick left to do before the enterprizing chap with a huge electromagnet on the back of his tractor does the rounds to try and get most of the tent pegs up.

Edited July 6, 2014 by Oracles

[Oracles]

I was told by one of the wagon drivers, a local Somerset lad, that some areas are even ploughed and then re seeded?

[Yoghurt on a Stick]

Well yesterday as I trundled towards the Red gate on my final journey from the farm I looked around and with a warm if slightly knackerd glow saw the yellowy green of recovering fields that had untill recently been the scene of some of the hardest partying on the planet!

I consider myself one of the lucky ones who get to see and sometimes explore the site before the rivers of human traffic come pouring through the gates on the Wednesday and the once lush green of the recently cut fields become a patchwork of brightly coloured tents and flags flapping in the wind.

In a nutshell there is probably only the fine pick left to do before the enterprizing chap with a huge electromagnet on the back of his tractor does the rounds to try and get most of the tent pegs up.

Now I know why you do it.

[Yoghurt on a Stick]

I was told by one of the wagon drivers, a local Somerset lad, that some areas are even ploughed and then re seeded?

Wow, they don't fuck about do they. They've got it running like a Swiss time piece.

[Oracles]

Well, it's gotten me into the largest festival on the planet since 09, we get fed watered, showered and paid, the work can be very physically demanding at times especially in the wet, but you will hear no complaints from me (only occasional observations). It was only as I was leaving this time that I realised how quick we had gotten through what had looked like the last days of Rome just days before. I think it will still be a good month or so, maybe a little longer before Farmer Eavis has his farm back and the girls can get back out on the land and produce their fine Somerset milk.

Then it probably wont be too long before the whowl process starts again

[Swine_Glasto2014]

My mums heard that also, the main grazing areas are ploughed, sifted and re planted.

I wonder if under all that soil is a few bits from maybe twenty years ago

[frostypaw]

IIRC after 07 they found a motorcycle buried from decades ago

I think they only plow up the mud ruined areas - lot less to reseed that way. Grass can recover from an astonishingly high amount of punishment

[Yoghurt on a Stick]

There's a dope joke in there somewhere but I just can't find it.

[Oracles]

2011 was wet and the full wagons and other heavy machinery had caused great ruts in some of the fields and we ended up with huge waves of mud as it started to dry out. Within these churned up waves were loads of wellies and even crisp packets and other crap from the 80's. The old transparent golden wonder crisp packets was one particular thing i remember.

I took my metal detector one year, complete waste of time, the thing went berserk with all the slowly rusting tent pegs inches under the surface!