Love The Farm, Leave No Trace

[TheParkAfterDark]

Lifted the following piece from the article linked in the Emily Eavis speaks exclusively to eFestivals thread. (On the mobile so only copied a small part of the quote)

"This is a bit more long term, but we're trying to get people to look after their campsites more. To be responsible for the space, to not trash things, and take care of it. Obviously we've had the Love The Farm Leave No Trace' thing, and it is getting better but we want to do more. We want people to look after their campsites more. We want people to take more pride in their camping areas, and look after their space, to collect rubbish, and not leave things in a mess, and try and encourage that somehow, we're looking at ideas in how to do that at the moment, and are keen for any ideas on how to accomplish that."

Interesting to hear. I think the 'Love the Farm, Leave No Trace' tagline is great but is essentially ignored by a significant amount of punters.

How would you look to improve the rubbish situation and get the message across? I'm sure the eFestivals community can put our heads together to come up with some decent solutions.

[Alcatraz]

Cans for Cans. Hand in your empty cans - get free Beats Headphones.

There could be a seed in the idea though. Obviously not with headphones.

It would be a bit sad that people would need to be bought off to do something that comes fairly naturally when in a home or city street

Edited March 2, 2015 by Alcatraz

[bexj]

Its easy...Take a couple of bin bags with you or pick some up from the campsite stewards. Each morning, while cracking your first tin, pick up your shit and put it in a bin bag. When the bin bag is full, tie the top and get another. Repeat each morning including Monday. Take down your tent and put it in a bag, check around for more shit including pegs and fag ends, put it in your bin bag, tie your bags up and carry them to the nearest track. Return to your tent, pick it up along with your other belongings. Leave the farm, leave no trace. Its actually really similar to what you'd do in your own home after a party, except for dealing with the tent.

[jonodillieono]

Its easy...Take a couple of bin bags with you or pick some up from the campsite stewards. Each morning, while cracking your first tin, pick up your shit and put it in a bin bag. When the bin bag is full, tie the top and get another. Repeat each morning including Monday. Take down your tent and put it in a bag, check around for more shit including pegs and fag ends, put it in your bin bag, tie your bags up and carry them to the nearest track. Return to your tent, pick it up along with your other belongings. Leave the farm, leave no trace. Its actually really similar to what you'd do in your own home after a party, except for dealing with the tent.

1) as a student you should see my kitchen from the party I had in September...

2) but that takes more effort than not doing it and what you have to remember is that there is a fair few people who go to glastonbury who are c**ts and are not willing to do such a simple task

I think the best way to encourage people to actually clean up after themselves isn't going down the nice route of "love the farm..." and should be more of "If you're too lazy to clean up your own mess you are a twat"

[marcwilson87]

The first year I went (05, I think) on entry we were given a handful of green and black bin bags. Where we were camping, even if people weren't taking their green bags full of cans to the recycling point, they were using them properly. When we left, there were full bin bags everywhere rather than crap all over the place. Years since the rubbish at the campsite by Monday has seemed worse. I haven't been given a single bin bag on entry since - I don't know if this is the same for everyone, or if it is because I've always gone in during peak times, but it seems stupid not to hand out bin bags to everyone on entry.

I know you can go to certain places on site to get bin bags etc, but hangovers and comedowns can cause laziness, so just give everyone a handful of normal and recycling bags on entry and I think that will have some, albeit small, impact.

I take my own, but I bet 99% of people don't.

[TheParkAfterDark]

We take our own bags but it wasn't that long ago that they handed out a binbag and a recycling bag to everyone walking through the gates. Anyone know why they stopped this or was it simply down to cost? Although it's possibly always been the same I feel in recent festivals the amount of litter in the campsites seems worse.

I'd like to see the Eavis' make a short 3 - 5 minute video talking about their love for the farm. Show images/footage of the farm and the cattle during normal day to day life, then the infrastructure taking place for the festival and their excitement building, the joy of the actual festival and then the aftermath. Images/footage of the crap. Comparisions to previously clean fields. Some approximate stats on how many tents and things are left damaged beyond repair when they could have been given to charity. Talk about how the cleanup affects the cattle getting back out to graze. Be brutally honest about how they feel about it when they look out over their 'backyard' at the mess.

If a well put together video was on the official website, shared on their social media outlets and screened at the festival between acts alongside the charity videos it might convince a few more to be more conscious of their surroundings.

I quite like the 'Love the Farm, if you leave a mess you're a Twat!' line though!

[ghandi]

I could enter into a rant about this, see thread form last year in the aftermath about the large group of teenage/ twenty somethings that left their campsite completely as it stood, mess, tents and all without lifting a finger...... SCUM! , but i'm not going to do that

I reckon we could arm the security on the towers with sniper rifles and if they see anyone NOT cleaning up on departure, let them have it.......... or am i bring a touch unrealistic?

[Filthy]

hand in 4 bin bags of rubbish, get tokens to get the q review or the aerial photo after the festival or something?

[russycarps]

I could enter into a rant about this, see thread form last year in the aftermath about the large group of teenage/ twenty somethings that left their campsite completely as it stood, mess, tents and all without lifting a finger...... SCUM! , but i'm not going to do that

I reckon we could arm the security on the towers with sniper rifles and if they see anyone NOT cleaning up on departure, let them have it.......... or am i bring a touch unrealistic?

there's just as many 30/40/50 something messy pigs as younger people I'd say.

[Matt42]

Do they do that thing I saw another festival do? Hand in so many 'used' Beer cups and you get a free beer?

People were carrying thousands of empty cups around the place!

[ryan.smith]

1) as a student you should see my kitchen from the party I had in September...

2) but that takes more effort than not doing it and what you have to remember is that there is a fair few people who go to glastonbury who are c**ts and are not willing to do such a simple task

I think the best way to encourage people to actually clean up after themselves isn't going down the nice route of "love the farm..." and should be more of "If you're too lazy to clean up your own mess you are a twat"

says the guy who hasn't cleaned his kitchen for 6 months

[whisty]

Do they do that thing I saw another festival do? Hand in so many 'used' Beer cups and you get a free beer?

People were carrying thousands of empty cups around the place!

Those festivals probably have only one provider of alcohol therefore making it easy to administer.

Edited March 3, 2015 by whisty

[jeffie]

I could enter into a rant about this, see thread form last year in the aftermath about the large group of teenage/ twenty somethings that left their campsite completely as it stood, mess, tents and all without lifting a finger...... SCUM! , but i'm not going to do that

I reckon we could arm the security on the towers with sniper rifles and if they see anyone NOT cleaning up on departure, let them have it.......... or am i bring a touch unrealistic?

Damn, no upvotes left....

[johnmcga]

Those festivals probably have only one provider of alcohol therefore making it easy to administer.

I'm a big fan of the cup deposit scheme at Reading and I find it hard to believe it would be impossible to administer at Glastonbury. Wouldn't do a lot about rubbish in the campsites though...

[LondonTom]

Probs reacched the maximum amount of people who are going to bother already with the slogans/bin bags etc. Sadly I think it will take paying off those who still persist to leave their crap where ever it drops with a free beer or something (and even then you will still have a load who who just cba to clean up after theirselves.)

I'd say cup deposit systems don't get people to think about it who wouldn't anyway, but get others collecting up the cups on the ground more. (Besides it wouldn't be as effective Glastonbury as people are allowed to take their own booze into the "arena".)

[giantkatestacks]

The cups wouldn't help. The festival make money on the things that can be recycled so cans and compostables - its all the other landfill crap in the campsites that's the problem and incentivising those that just don't care is the issue.

I don't think it's an age thing either - they have probably just got so trashed on Sunday night that they can't face doing anything about it. I think it needs to be linked to registrations in some way but that goes against the ethos of the place to be policing people. Maybe there's no answer.

[5co77ie]

there has to be an answer - I'd go all hard nosed about it - when you camp you have to give your registration number - anyone leaving a mess has their number deleted and are blocked for life - that'll learn them.

[st dan]

The thing is that it isn't even effort to leave no trace at your campsite.

It's not a case of running to a bin every time you've finished a can ... I'll admit our campsite is a real mess from Wednesday - Monday .. But when its packing up time, as we are taking our tents down we make sure we each have a bin bag and clean everything up. Why people can't have it in them to do this is something I really can't understnd.

[Memory Man]

The first year I went (05, I think) on entry we were given a handful of green and black bin bags.

I haven't been given a single bin bag on entry since - I don't know if this is the same for everyone, or if it is because I've always gone in during peak times, but it seems stupid not to hand out bin bags to everyone on entry.

We've been saying this in our group, bin bags were given out at the same time and place as programmes. I have no idea at all why this was stopped as it makes no sense to do it one year and not another!

we went out of our way to go to one of the stewards at the caravans to ask why they weren't handing them out and they just shrugged we don't know.... would be a good start and something easy to do. get the green and black bags handed to everyone on arrival, it sets the tone for what they are trying to enforce and gives people no excuse.

[stuwilky]

Purely conjecture but does the stopping giving out different coloured bin bags coincide with the introduction of the recycling sorting shed at Worthy Farm. They sort through everything now, so no need for separate bags? I still agree they set the mindset though.

Its not hard to chuck stuff in a bin bag is it?!

Edited March 3, 2015 by stuwilky

[Pinhead]

My 2p's worth:

Re-instate handing out of recycling and rubbish bags at gates upon entry,

Publicise issue with appropriate before / after informational video on the big screens between acts,

Add an entry to the Find Guide and / or T&C's on back of ticket advising that the festival strongly discourages the use of disposable tents at the festival,

Festival PR to be raising the issue consistently within any press releases or interviews in the run up to the festival,

Post-deposit payment email to include an up front message about maintaining the tidiness of the site and disposal of rubbish during and after the festival,

Festival stewards to be 'on message' around the campsites during patrols,

A few more campsite caravans with rubbish bags available 24/7 would no go amiss.

[jamesrfisher]

The mess is a really sad sight to see on Monday walking back to the car. It is people of all ages who do it. What frustrates me is that a lot of these people wouldn't behave like that normally but just don't seem to care as they have had a good time.

Still think they should hand out bags, makes people think about it at least. At Latitude they go around the campsite handing bags out.

We take our own bags and clear up as we go along leaving nothing behind on the Monday.

[Mr Splodge]

At the end of the day it is someone's back garden, would you trash leave a mess? I really hope the answer is no. So why do it there.

Take it home and recycle simple.

[mr gumby]

Still think they should hand out bags, makes people think about it at least. At Latitude they go around the campsite handing bags out.

We take our own bags and clear up as we go along leaving nothing behind on the Monday.

When I was litter picking on the Monday morning last year, dozens of people were asking us for bags, which we happily gave out. Unfortunately, these were people who clearly wanted to clean up their campsites. Plenty of people don't seem to give a shit about leaving a mess, so giving them bags would just mean the bags being added to the crap left behind.

I can't see any way of incentivising people to clean up, short of having the whole site full of pre-erected tents, registered to particular ticket holders, which clearly isn't going to happen. I think pushing the message across is all that can be done.

[A Guy Called Matt]

Sadly the minority who could not care less and leave anything and everything will always do so due to their ignorance.

Locally we have initiatives to try and stop litter and dog mess and all have failed.

If I could think of a way of getting someone to care for their surroundings and simply take litter home or use bins I would suggest it locally and on here.

Sadly I have no idea on the matter of someone not giving a damn.