Tent walkabout post festival

[NoBallGames]

1 hour ago, DeanoL said:

At home, do you take all your rubbish to the processing centre yourself, or do you leave it for the binmen to collect? Yes, you pay council tax that pays for that collection, but if you paid that and didn't leave a bin out, the council would have more money to spend on schools.

Yes, people paying £230 for their fun time do consider that time more important that someone else who is being paid per hour to clean it up. It's not nice but it does make sense.

And when Eavis says "I wish people would drink less and do less drugs", where's the common respect and decency gone for that request? When he says "don't arrive in a campervan yet" and people ignore it, where's the common decency gone for that request? There are private security searches for drugs on the site. That's not the police, that's the festival itself saying "don't bring drugs" and taking them off people if they do. And yet people still bring them on mass. Where's the respect there?

It's really easy to argue "common respect and decency" when it's something you'd do anyway. And very easy to ignore the requests of the festival when it's asking you to do something you don't like.

Probably. When tickets cost £230 + travel it's fair to say the festival is going to attract people with disposable income. There will be others who do have to scrape together every last penny to afford the festival as their one holiday of the year and again that's different. Equally there will be people who can only go because they make the money back working for the clean-up crew after the festival, and would be out of a job if everyone took their stuff home. There's always an effect somewhere.

As for at home and my rubbish we have street cleaners here that go around everyday in carts and clean up trash all over the neighborhood and the city. Over 30% of my income goes to pay for services like these. It does not make any sense just because large monetary sums of money were spent that I am now disconnected from my social responsibility because the man outside in the cart is being paid $8 an hour to cleanup my waste while I make significantly more thus can afford higher taxes to deal with it. It means I should still clean up my ffking trash like a respectful inhabitant on this planet. I go and sort my stuff into various recycle bins that private companies then pick up and my neighbors get to walk out of their house not staring at piles of my waste. 

f you are trying to say because people disrespect the farm in tons of different ways it is okay to disrespect it further by being lazy wasteful human beings I'm not quite sure it is the best argument. The spirit of Glastonbury is one of progressive ideals, trying to find ways to be better humans, working on ways to open our minds about the environment around us. 

It is really easy to argue "common respect and decency" on all these levels. I don't think any of us are saying we should exclude one or another. This is a thread about wasteful shit being left behind. We can start another about the selfish egotistical arseholes that arrived early in a campervan when told not to as well and helped jam up traffic for 6 hours as they got towed. That works too. It doesn't lessen one social responsibility because other people break another. 

Edited June 30, 2016 by NoBallGames

[Platt073]

Shit that's terrible, bet no one left any campers or caravans behind.

We live in throw away society where everything is made cheap, I nearly went back to bag a tent, but was too knackered.

I was in a camper van,  so not guilty here. 

[LondonTom]

Not making excuses but its always worse in a muddy year, there was a few moments over the weekend where I did briefly consider leaving my tent (admittedly I would took it and left by the rubbish, like I do with all mine)

Those rubbish points they had in the campsites seemed a little pointless Monday morning. took my rubbish bag there but it was over flowing and you couldn't make out the difference between recycling/non recycled wasted anymore.

 

Not sure there is anything practical that can be done to really prevent it, you are either that inclined or you are not.

[mr flow]

There isn't an answer unfortunately. I think they only way they'll achieve less waste is if they do more Worthy view style fields in the main site. Say they made 6 or so fields like that, it'd reduce the amount of waste that people could leave behind. You could also have a checkout system where peoples tents are checked when you leave to ensure you've taken all your stuff with you.

 

Might work?

[ancient_one]

I just don't get it. How hard is it to pack a tent away? I really think there should be huge (volunteer?) patrols on the Monday morning, reminding people to take them, helping pack them if needs be. It's all well and good having Worthy Warriors and campsite stewards during the festival handing out rubbish sacks, but it looks as if Monday is the time to get into action.

My tent is 30 years old next year - still keeps me dry, and it would take three broken poles and a huge rip to make me consider getting rid of it. And I would still bring it home first.

[Harebell]

My husband and I volunteered for a small charity called Small Steps Project which helps children and families living on rubbish dumps around the world.  We worked with the recycling crew, litter picking Friday to Monday morning on the Pyramid stage, the wages we would have earned will go to charity and we also gave a donation to Small Steps. We had three types of bags; black for landfill, blue for recyclables like bottles and cans and white for compostables like paper cups, wooden forks, food etc. Most of the stuff we picked up could be recycled or composted, surprisingly few black bags (worst stuff was abandoned ponchos, plastic sheeting and camping chairs). The festival has made the effort to only provide wooden spoons, recycled steel cups, paper plates etc so it is depressing to see the state of the camping fields as the majority of the stuff left will needlessly end up in landfill, not reused or recycled.

I get that people are there to have a good time but you can have the time of your life and not screw the place up too much! Another recycling crew told us that some guy who was still tripping on something joined them for most of their early morning shift one day because he was coming back from a night out and was horrified that volunteers were cleaning up all the mess. He said he just really cared about the environment and got stuck in! If everyone did one recycling shift at lot of mind sets would be changed but that's not going to happen anytime soon. I'm not sure how to improve the situation, more affordable pre-erected tent options? More campsite crew to help/encourage people to recycle and take stuff home? I guess it's just a symptom of the disposable culture we live in, you can't fully escape it even in the wonderful, happy world of Glasto.

 

[DeanoL]

42 minutes ago, NoBallGames said:

If you are trying to say because people disrespect the farm in tons of different ways it is okay to disrespect it further by being lazy wasteful human beings I'm not quite sure it is the best argument. The spirit of Glastonbury is one of progressive ideals, trying to find ways to be better humans, working on ways to open our minds about the environment around us. 

Not at all, I'm just tired of how judgemental people get in these threads. I'm not a fan of people leaving shit behind. I am a fan of people taking drugs (though don't myself). But both are banned by the festival, and the idea that someone happily breaks one rule, because they've decided they don't agree with it so it doesn't apply to them, but has utter blinders on to why other people might break another rule that they don't disagree with, I find quite hypocritical.

In terms of environment, yes. But someone travelling by coach and leaving their tent probably generated a smaller carbon footprint than those who drove but took their tents with them. And we don't know how people act in the rest of their lives.

28 minutes ago, Platt073 said:

Shit that's terrible, bet no one left any campers or caravans behind.

We live in throw away society where everything is made cheap, I nearly went back to bag a tent, but was too knackered.

I was in a camper van,  so not guilty here. 

No but your camper probably had a greater impact on the environment than someone coming by public transport and leaving a tent. And it probably cost the festival more to pay for your van to be towed on and off site than it would for them to pay for someone's tent to be collected.

19 minutes ago, mr flow said:

There isn't an answer unfortunately. I think they only way they'll achieve less waste is if they do more Worthy view style fields in the main site. Say they made 6 or so fields like that, it'd reduce the amount of waste that people could leave behind.

The problem is, you still have to take down the tents in Worthy View. Or to put it another way: 100% of tents in Worthy View are left, which is the worst of any field on the whole site. They still have to be packed down and collected. Yes, they get re-used, so it's environmentally good, but it doesn't help the festival.

Edited June 30, 2016 by DeanoL

[Swine_Glasto2014]

Unfortunately the festival attracts a large percentage of the same people that go out in town every weekend, dropping litter, getting pissed, smashing stuff up.

The same people who think nothing of throwing there KFC rubbish out of the window at the Trade Park car park. Same people who go for that one off camp in a beauty spot and leave there burnt cans, broken bottles, shit and piss everywhere.

They have been educated, they have seen the signs and adverts. Unfortunately they dont give a shit...

Sorry to be classists or what ever but that is life man.

Funnily enough, i went down Monday early afternoon and thought ( it was still disgusting) it the tidiest ive seen it for a while :)!

[Peroni]

30 minutes ago, Platt073 said:

Shit that's terrible, bet no one left any campers or caravans behind.

We live in throw away society where everything is made cheap, I nearly went back to bag a tent, but was too knackered.

I was in a camper van,  so not guilty here. 

I think I actually saw someone had abandoned a caravan....

[Funkyfairy!]

36 minutes ago, Platt073 said:

Shit that's terrible, bet no one left any campers or caravans behind.

We live in throw away society where everything is made cheap, I nearly went back to bag a tent, but was too knackered.

I was in a camper van,  so not guilty here. 

I'm afraid they did. In E18 there was a caravan, 3 tents and an awning left behind by one group.- disgraceful I'll post pictures later ! It was soon tatted and people came along with screwdrivers and removed the parts they wanted and 2 out of the 3 tents had gone by the time we left

 

[FestiZebra]

I wish people would take notice of the fact they can actually donate their tents

Edited June 30, 2016 by FestiZebra
re-watched full video

[YetAnotherOldHippy]

Some odd arguments in this thread, but there's a massive difference between taking drugs reponsibly (it is possible ) and deliberately getting completely fucked up regularly, requiring others to look after you.

Likewise, there's a similar difference between planning on dumping all your stuff while making no effort to clean it up and leaving a bag of rubbish and/or recycling or two.

[DeanoL]

15 minutes ago, Funkyfairy! said:

I'm afraid they did. In E18 there was a caravan, 3 tents and an awning left behind by one group.- disgraceful I'll post pictures later ! It was soon tatted and people came along with screwdrivers and removed the parts they wanted and 2 out of the 3 tents had gone by the time we left

Might have been a rental with delivery to the site?

[Funkyfairy!]

Just now, DeanoL said:

Might have been a rental with delivery to the site?

Rentals all get delivered to E25 .... this was an old caravan - no way was it a rental and it was left behind with a broken awning, 3 tents still with their rubbish in them - and piles of empty beer cans and oranges (!). Stewards came to take a look as well.

 

[DeanoL]

12 minutes ago, YetAnotherOldHippy said:

Some odd arguments in this thread, but there's a massive difference between taking drugs reponsibly (it is possible ) and deliberately getting completely fucked up regularly, requiring others to look after you.

Likewise, there's a similar difference between planning on dumping all your stuff while making no effort to clean it up and leaving a bag of rubbish and/or recycling or two.

Of course. And drug taking doesn't really cost the festival anything either.

There are essentially three arguments here. They're all valid and fair, but they're also all hard to take people seriously getting het up.

1) The cost to the festival. Would be better if they didn't have to pay people to take the tents down. But it's not a major cost. It's one they could do without but it's manageable. The festival won't be folding because of it.

2) The environmental cost. It'd be better if this stuff wasn't wasted, manufacturing impacts the environment and so on. Again, true. But if you drove to the festival and are criticising someone who left their tent and took public transport, then you're on the wrong end of the carbon scales.

3) We should respect the farm and Mr Eavis, and follow the rules he gives us in exchange for being allowed to come to the festival. Again, sensible, but bringing drugs in is also against the rules. And Michael would rather you didn't drink too much either. Yet people will happily break these rules and requests- so you lose the moral high ground pretty quickly there.

And still, I'm not saying people should leave stuff. I'm saying people should stop and consider the actual environmental and financial impact of all those left tents rather that just going "mess, gross, that's awful, let's ban everyone"

[CHRLY]

Found one of these beauties in great condition so packed it up and took it home: http://www.buachaille.com/p8-2-20/4+-Man-Tents/Vango-Diablo-900-Tent.html

Sorted for the next few fests I reckon.

Edited June 30, 2016 by CHRLY

[mungo57]

4 hours ago, Peroni said:

Exactly - you spend all that energy to get the booze on site in the first place, or you pay money at the bars, how hard is it carry a bag for empties or use a bin!

Fully agreed

[mungo57]

4 hours ago, Robinn said:

This. I usually just put my empty cans/cups in my back-pocket until I came across a garbage bin. I don't understand why these people are putting future festivals on the line.

 

That's why I wear exclusive cargos at fests nowadays. Pockets for fucking everything!

[giantkatestacks]

3 hours ago, DeanoL said:

Not at all, I'm just tired of how judgemental people get in these threads. I'm not a fan of people leaving shit behind. I am a fan of people taking drugs (though don't myself). But both are banned by the festival, and the idea that someone happily breaks one rule, because they've decided they don't agree with it so it doesn't apply to them, but has utter blinders on to why other people might break another rule that they don't disagree with, I find quite hypocritical.

In terms of environment, yes. But someone travelling by coach and leaving their tent probably generated a smaller carbon footprint than those who drove but took their tents with them. And we don't know how people act in the rest of their lives.

No but your camper probably had a greater impact on the environment than someone coming by public transport and leaving a tent. And it probably cost the festival more to pay for your van to be towed on and off site than it would for them to pay for someone's tent to be collected.

The problem is, you still have to take down the tents in Worthy View. Or to put it another way: 100% of tents in Worthy View are left, which is the worst of any field on the whole site. They still have to be packed down and collected. Yes, they get re-used, so it's environmentally good, but it doesn't help the festival.

It helps the festival if all the WV tents get lent out for Boomtown or elsewhere though doesnt it so they pay for themselves several times over.

[AiiShotTheDJ]

That video is shocking.  I completely respect the debate however; taking drugs and buying expensive food isn't the same as leaving your shit for everybody else to clear up.  Rules aside, the very virtue that people will leave the land in that condition is shocking- it's not even like the tents are clean inside and some people have clearly left those tents with the "somebody else will clear it up" attitude.  I done my back in on the Sunday and actually left early (we usually stay until Monday).  Did that stop me packing everything away and pushing a cart (whose wheels clogged up every 5 minutes) through deep muddy tractor tracks up to Blue 6 from the Pyramid? No.  I also, no matter how many drinks I'd had, never dropped a cigarette on the floor and we made sure our entire pitch was clear at the end. 

Edited June 30, 2016 by AiiShotTheDJ

[Larraht]

4 hours ago, ancient_one said:

I just don't get it. How hard is it to pack a tent away? I really think there should be huge (volunteer?) patrols on the Monday morning, reminding people to take them, helping pack them if needs be. It's all well and good having Worthy Warriors and campsite stewards during the festival handing out rubbish sacks, but it looks as if Monday is the time to get into action.

My tent is 30 years old next year - still keeps me dry, and it would take three broken poles and a huge rip to make me consider getting rid of it. And I would still bring it home first.

Mines getting on a bit too...have been thinking about nabbing someone else's next year if all these are left! I'm definitely not one of those who can justify leaving behind a £200+ tent. Ours has done about 6 festivals now and is looking a little haggard but it'll come home with me every time (even if I nick someone elses).

[kaytee...]

Disgusting. And the state of the inside of some of those tents, people live like pigs. Imagine all the pegs that people have to pick out of the ground too. I really hope those like Camplight salvaged a lot of them, some really decent tents still about too which I don't understand. 

If you can't be arsed to take it home with you, don't bring it in the first place.

[joeltg]

Absolutely disgraceful.

I didn't leave so much as a crisp packet on the floor, like every year. 

And do you know what, it isn't even alot of effort not to! 

Edited June 30, 2016 by joeltg

[phillyfaddle]

Ian my friend, well done you for documenting this xx I think you should also share with Glasto Fest, as it could be added to their website. It really is a symptom of our consumerist, selfish society. Appealing to people's better natures just doesn't work. The only solution is more policing of the campsites, but that destroys the Glastonbury free spirit. Used to think it was just a minority that did this, but your vid showed it's now a significant minority. Perhaps we just have to accept more regulation....I dunno!

[DeanoL]

59 minutes ago, phillyfaddle said:

The only solution is more policing of the campsites,

Or just paying people to clean it up afterwards.