"Festival Tent" pushback

[balti-pie]

Maybe it’s because I’m an exceptionally tight and parsimonious bloke, but if I’ve researched, chosen and bought a tent then I don’t care how knackered I feel, I’m taking it down and home with me. I paid for it, it’s mine. Even aside from environmental concerns, as well as just human concerns about staying on someone else’s property and keeping things tidy, it’s my bloody tent! 

[Smeble]

I don’t pay much attention to marketing of tents but ‘ festival tent ‘ means to me a tent that is good for use at a festival, not a tent that’s perfect for lazy bar stewards who don’t give a fcuk and leave all their sh1t behind for others to clear up. Target lazy festival goers not the shops that sell the tents. 

Its not the words festival tent that makes people think they are single use, it’s the fact they are cheap as chips, if they were more expensive people would be more inclined to take them home. That does however present other issues around festival affordability though.

[The life of Pablo]

I think we can avoid this by stopping anyone bringing in their own tent and have a (high) deposit on renting them out. Use the same tents every year. It's a longshot.

[giantkatestacks]

On the Shambala Facebook page today they are backing this and expressed utter sadness that in 2017 there was something like 33 tents left and last year 150. So it is actually getting worse though the weather must impact a particular year.

[Johnnyseven]

I used the same tent for years, until one year someone decided the best place on site to have a nap was on top of my tent. He managed to break a couple of the poles which I managed to temporarily repair with electrical tape and spare tent pegs, it managed to last the rest of the festival. I still took it home with me though, it's still in the loft. I looked to see if I could get some new poles for it but replacement poles cost more than the tent was new and more than what I could get a replacement for.

[sophiemarie]

1 hour ago, hfuhruhurr said:

Education, on entrance and during the fest from respected people is the only way forward.

I've been thinking about the sort of "messaging" that would work to get this point across...

Time it takes you to pack your tent = 10 minutes
You and your neighbours in Pennard's Hill = 5,000 people (total guess, no idea)
The volunteers' time wasted if you and your neighbours don't pack your tent = 34 days

Something like that?

[hfuhruhurr]

9 minutes ago, sophiemarie said:

I've been thinking about the sort of "messaging" that would work to get this point across...

Time it takes you to pack your tent = 10 minutes
You and your neighbours in Pennard's Hill = 5,000 people (total guess, no idea)
The volunteers' time wasted if you and your neighbours don't pack your tent = 34 days

Something like that?

Yes. And also I think the plastic cup/straw/bag equivalence thing might work. If it was possible to say that the average festival tent is equivalent to 200 plastic bags. Your tent isn't a single use plastic.

[BambooShanks]

2 minutes ago, hfuhruhurr said:

Yes. And also I think the plastic cup/straw/bag equivalence thing might work. If it was possible to say that the average festival tent is equivalent to 200 plastic bags. Your tent isn't a single use plastic

That and have a giant billboard of David Attenborough looking down  over Pennards with the caption "Leave no trace, or I'll smash your Face"

[jfaragher]

28 minutes ago, sophiemarie said:

I've been thinking about the sort of "messaging" that would work to get this point across...

Time it takes you to pack your tent = 10 minutes
You and your neighbours in Pennard's Hill = 5,000 people (total guess, no idea)
The volunteers' time wasted if you and your neighbours don't pack your tent = 34 days

 Something like that?

Problem is, many people don't care about other people's time...

Telling them that it adds £x to the ticket price might be more 'real'? Or that all the cute baby sharks / turtles will die?

[Kay95]

1 hour ago, marcoolio said:

IIRC, Camplight was offered a space *outside* the fence this year.

This is what I recall too. I can understand why they wouldn't take it.  I used them a few times as I was travelling by coach. I will travel by coach this year too, but not be able to camp in pennards…. I would rather be anywhere inside the site than outside it.

 

[Rufus Gwertigan]

What are the panels thoughts on the use of cattle prods? It seems the only way forward. 

[dccool]

This might work....

 

[Crazyfool01]

its fairly obvious to me when im in the camping areas the likely people who are going to leave their tents are the ones that create a shit hole by their tents during the festival without a bin bag in sight ... maybe a few parking type tickets slapped on these tents warning of the environmental cost ... and the fact they all get landfilled ....

[DeanoL]

3 hours ago, doogie said:

Sadly, the eviction this year of Camplight makes it look like they're not that serious about providing affordable solutions to the problem

Camplight doesn't really improve anything though. 100% of Camplight users left their tents behind last festival. Sure Camplight then pack said tents away, clean and re-use them, but if that were scalable, they could do that across the festival anyway: pack away and then re-use every abandoned tent.

It still comes down to the same thing: paying someone to do it so you don't have to. That's what already happens: we pay our ticket price and that pays for all the workers that take down the tents and clean up. (And they're not volunteers).

This isn't a festival problem. This is a tent problem. Tents are being sold far, far too cheaply. 

[LeeHC]

4 hours ago, incident said:

Conversely, I think it shows the exact opposite.

Camplight was a big advert right in the middle of one of the most popular camping fields - Leave your tent, and someone will reuse it.

Agreed - it didn't maximise the space it had and was in the most popular field, why did it need to be there? 

[Funkyfairy!]

4 hours ago, crazyfool1 said:

no sign of the worthy warriors scheme this year which is a little disappointing ....thought this might have got expanded as its was purely voluntary  

The Monday volunteering last time was abysmal - we trekked from East cv to Pennards to help and I think there were 5 people turned up - I'm not sure how many poeple used it for the free t shirt printing only , and didn;t go that extra mile, we did our shift, signed in and out again etc but I think it seemed a poor turnout .

I think they should have tried again this year but I'm not sure what they could do to make it differnt and attract people (apart from just caring and wanting to be involved)

[Crazyfool01]

1 minute ago, Funkyfairy! said:

The Monday volunteering last time was abysmal - we trekked from East cv to Pennards to help and I think there were 5 people turned up - I'm not sure how many poeple used it for the free t shirt printing only , and didn;t go that extra mile, we did our shift, signed in and out again etc but I think it seemed a poor turnout .

I think they should have tried again this year but I'm not sure what they could do to make it differnt and attract people (apart from just caring and wanting to be involved)

I didn't sign up as such to the volunteering  the monday  but did make sure my campsite was clear and others camped around me were too  ... I think you were given the option of either as it was voluntary ...... Im going to ask Asda if they are going to continue to sell disposable tents through the internal contact the boss thing ... they aren't very good at replies so will see what they say 

[Dave_c]

Unfortunately no amount of marketing, telling people it adds £x to the ticket price, or educating them on the damage it does to the environment is going to solve the problem. c**ts will be c**ts regardless.

[Funkyfairy!]

17 minutes ago, crazyfool1 said:

I didn't sign up as such to the volunteering  the monday  but did make sure my campsite was clear and others camped around me were too  ... I think you were given the option of either as it was voluntary ...... Im going to ask Asda if they are going to continue to sell disposable tents through the internal contact the boss thing ... they aren't very good at replies so will see what they say 

Good luck , and awesome :-)

You;re right it was voluntary, talking to the people running it at the village greens I think a load of people had pledged t help out Monday but very few rocked up :-(

[Old_Johno]

49 minutes ago, Dave_c said:

Unfortunately no amount of marketing, telling people it adds £x to the ticket price, or educating them on the damage it does to the environment is going to solve the problem. c**ts will be c**ts regardless.

I’d like to think education will help, but I agree there will always be a few who think they’re too good for it. 

Reading has a huge problem with c**ts and tents being left behind so guess it goes hand in hand. 

[Rufus Gwertigan]

, "Why the fuck should I clear up when I have paid a wedge for a ticket. Also that is what the litter pickers are paid for." 

How can you argue against that logic? I worked for a litter crew for a good few years and saw the same attitude at even small festivals. I have seen every type of accommodation abandoned, even caravans, and it is a society problem of which festivals are a microcosm. People need to be challenged at the off set not to be scruffy c**ts but who is willing to take the risk. Not me, I can't be doing with the hassle 

[Crazyfool01]

13 minutes ago, Rufus Gwertigan said:

, "Why the fuck should I clear up when I have paid a wedge for a ticket. Also that is what the litter pickers are paid for." 

How can you argue against that logic? I worked for a litter crew for a good few years and saw the same attitude at even small festivals. I have seen every type of accommodation abandoned, even caravans, and it is a society problem of which festivals are a microcosm. People need to be challenged at the off set not to be scruffy c**ts but who is willing to take the risk. Not me, I can't be doing with the hassle 

It really doesn't have to be a hassle or confrontational ... I had no issues or confrontation when I gave a few bin bags out to neighbours and people will act like sheep if they see people cleaning up ... not everyone but it does make a difference ... rather than saying its not my problem ?

[EasyUserName]

18 minutes ago, Rufus Gwertigan said:

, "Why the fuck should I clear up when I have paid a wedge for a ticket. Also that is what the litter pickers are paid for." 

How can you argue against that logic? I worked for a litter crew for a good few years and saw the same attitude at even small festivals. I have seen every type of accommodation abandoned, even caravans, and it is a society problem of which festivals are a microcosm. People need to be challenged at the off set not to be scruffy c**ts but who is willing to take the risk. Not me, I can't be doing with the hassle 

Someone left a pop-up trailer tent thing near us one year.  It was alright outside, but they trashed the inside for no reason I could see.  Still worth getting, I was gutted I had no towbar on the camper...

[HalfAnIdiot]

It does my head in how people can just leave so much crap behind them at G. Sure it gets cleaned up by paid staff but a) its just the wrong fuc*ing attitude and b) that money would otherwise go to worthy causes.

Festival Tents and Festival Pack (tents, sleeping bags etc) show up the real attitude to waste of the major supermarkets and similar. Whats the point in selling cucumbers without plastic wrapping right next to instant landfill Festival Tents FFS! 

Add that self serving corporate behaviour to the pure selfish selective ignorance of the Jordans & Jennys of this world and you get the mess we are in.

The supermarkets need to get real about their responsibilities and the Jordans & Jennys need to wake up.

 

[fuztownsend01]

Never left anything behind at Glastonbury apart from large chunks of my brain

 

buy fessing up... I did leave a tent at Reading in the early 90's.. by the Monday morning the entire site looked like Beirut in the 80's so one more tent wont hurt...

but I was young and stupid....