Do you think festival should have helped me?

[MyAppleTree]

Not really a big deal, but home and musing. Went to a festival this weekend, on my own. Had an ok time.

For context my stuff was really heavy, 8 man tent huge heavy, only one I could borrow and obviously had to bring it back.

The night before I’ve left my asthma inhaler ran out, and I’ve started bleeding and cramping from a minor procedure I had done last week. I had an asthma attack about a week ago too.

Anyway the car was absolutely miles away, through mud and hills. Sincerely worried I could not physically make it. So I thought I was sensible going to camp welfare and asking if there was any way to hire a buggy to take the stuff to the car. They said no but sent me to first aid to see if I could get an inhaler to manage the asthma doing the drag.

First aid wouldn’t give me a spare inhaler unless I was having an actual attack, not just feeling wheezy. No help available obviously for the cramping as I need a gp to assess that.

So basically no help.

Now I did make it to the car. Very very breathless and in pain, car got stuck in the mud and had to be towed. Stupid gear and I fell down a few hills too!

Hence not a big deal because while breathless I have made it home (2hr drive) and have my inhalers. And yes it’s my own fault for not picking up my spare!!

So just a hypothetical really, were they unreasonable not to help me when I asked? It could have ended differently.

A spare inhaler, fair enough, they could have helped but not help with your tent - it's always been you only take in what you can take out, you took a massive tent alone after minor surgery. For those who cannot manage tents, most festivals offer preerected ones at a price of course. I'm guessing in a dire medical emergency situation they would have staff later on the Monday who have helped people but we are talking child hospitalised taking away a parent and the other is trying to look after 3 kids situation rather than grown women takes too much stuff when her dr would have advised her to take it easy! They generally have carts you can rent - we paid £10 last time for an hour

YABU you shouldn't have gone sorry.

Sorry OP, but 100% YABU.

These were all foreseeable. Of course it was going to be a nightmare carrying all that stuff. If you can afford to go to a festival why couldn't you afford £40 on a cheap 1 man tent?

And you knew before you set off that your inhaler had run out. And that you had just had an operation.

I'm not sure what you were expecting from them.

Taking an 8 man tent for 1 person is really, really selfish.

Could you not have hired a cart to take your stuff to the car in?

I agree that the need to forward plan was the OPs responsibility and would just add the need to get her car checked out before going on a trip.

I think the staff could have been more compassionate. However I reckon they suffer from compassion fatigue when it comes to dippy people who show up negligently unprepared. Moreover I expect they found the whole sorry saga an unbelievable con.

A lot of people seem to feel it's ok to minimise your asthma - including the festival staff.

As someone with moderate/severe asthma, there’s no way I’d have minimised my asthma by making the decisions the OP has.

Even in full good health I'd have struggled humping an eight man tent and all my kit about. When booking the festival Tickets and camping I'd have bought a cheap much smaller manageable one.

When I got the date for the op I'd realised I'd be carrying all that about after minor surgery then I'd def have organised a much smaller tent at that point. If that wouldn't be enough to make me re think my plans having an asthma attack the week before absolutely would have.

All the reasons you give as to why they should be helping and giving you trolleys and inhalers are the very same reasons you should have bought a smaller tent and made sure that you had sufficient inhalers esp as you've had a very recent attack. If these are unreasonable for not managing your tent and giving you inhalers, then you are also a bit unreasonable for not doing the same and using a smaller tent and double checking inhaler. Esp when you know you've had a recent attack and surgery at least a week before you went.

I have a lung condition and struggle a lot and it's shit and I genuinely do hope you feel better. Losing my inhaler is a big source of anxiety for me and when going away I'm that worried about being without I have one in every bag I'm case I lose one or it gets stolen etc.

I probably wouldn’t have risked it without my inhaler so I think you are bonkers for that alone. I forgot mine the other day and drove home to get it and had to work an hour later due to the time it took but I think it is a foolish risk. You don’t always know that you will get given one. I have been given one by a pharmacy before on holiday but this was only on the basis that I rang the surgery to explain and stayed there until the prescription was faxed to them. It was a massive faff (my inhaler got wet and it is dry powder). For multiple reasons they often will not give you one without a prescription.

I think you did the best in the circumstances and if you don’t ask you don’t get, so YANBU to have asked them but I don’t think they have a ‘duty of care’ for people who willingly choose to make bad decisions. Sorry

Why didn't you take a marquee and go the whole hog? You were BU not to go to Millets/Go or Blacks and buy a cheap 1-2 person tent.That would have been sensible.

My asthma played up last time I was at a festival and the St John's Ambulance people couldn't have been kinder. They put me on a nebuliser.

But if I'd gone to a festival without a spare inhaler and with a ridiculously heavy, huge tent (oh, and a week after a minor procedure) I'd have had to admit that I was the author of my own misfortune.

YABVU.

Seriously? Another entitled lady 🙄
If you’re asthmatic don’t run out of your inhaler especially going to a festival. Who the feck borrows an 8 man tent? But a wee £30 one. Diddums you had cramp.
It’s a festival not the Ritz. Honestly women like you are an embarrassment.

OP was foolish and has hopefully learned a lesson, perhaps even gained some resilience and confidence in her abilities, so the festival may actually have helped, just not in the way you expected/wanted.

As an aside do these festivals have processes in place for those who genuinely cannot manage, disabled people etc, even to book in advance for help getting to/from car and carrying stuff?

“I would complain.”

To whom and about what? Festivals do not provide a service to help people carry their camping gear! Some of the bigger ones might have cart hire available these days, but in my experience you get there solely under your own steam and sort yourself out. There’s nothing to complain about - nothing was promised, no one has been let down.

It’s like complaining that after you had your hair cut, the hairdresser didn’t give you a lift home .

I think you should have been more organised and planned ahead. You should of took a smaller tent (pop up 2 man) and should have made sure you had enough medication with you. Sounds like you didn’t really think it through before going, not really anyone else’s fault.

You were really poorly prepared for going to a festival where you would be on your own. When you realised you would have to carry an 8 man tent a week after having surgery and an asthma attack you should have made the grown up choice not to go.

How on earth did you get an eight man tent up on your own. They are really heavy and at the minimum you need help with the tension poles?

They were correct in not giving you an inhaler if you weren't having an attack. If you were having a bad attack you would have been taken to hospital and put on a nebuliser. They wouldn't take the risk to not do so. Clearly you weren't that ill.

Do you have preventative inhalers as well as the actual attack ones? If so, how could you leave both behind? The preventative inhaler should be part of your daily routine surely? Like cleaning your teeth?

As an aside do these festivals have processes in place for those who genuinely cannot manage, disabled people etc, even to book in advance for help getting to/from car and carrying stuff?

Absolutely. If you genuinely need help they are brilliant I think.

I think you were really stupid to go to a festival on your own without an inhaler while bleeding. How did you imagine you would get your stuff sorted?

There are probably limits to what they can help with for the sake of insurance/risk of being sued, etc. it’s probably in the Ts and Cs (that you agreed to when you purchased the ticket) that the volunteers and Marshall’s are not responsible for this abc that and cannot offer a porterage service. I’ve volunteered in the past at such things and to be honest you don’t give up your weekend to volunteer at a festival to carry stuff for grown adults who don’t know how to travel light. You do it to get into the festival for free abd for good fun. If you can afford a festival ticket, you can afford a cheap (second-hand, even) small tent from Gumtree or a charity shop. Or one of those pull-carts I see people dragging small kids around in at parks. Or a wheelbarrow.

They are also probably limited with the medical advice and assistance they can give because they are not qualified doctors or nurses. A first aider can put an arm in a sling and send you to hospital but giving someone you’ve never met before an inhaler could be lethal. How do they know what your prescription is? Your asthma is your responsibility.

YABU, for all the reasons stated.
Adults with capacity take responsibility for their choices. If you were incapable of managing adequately, you shouldn’t have gone. Your fussing about tents and help could well have taken the limited assistance available from someone who needed it. In the same way as people phoning ambulances for a lift do.
Plan ahead next time, or don’t pout and flounce about the consequences.

All your own fault I'm afraid and not the job of the festival to sort it out.

Certainly a couple of years ago, Asda pharmacy used to sell inhalers to adults without prescription, about £7 or £8 I think. Your job to arrange a fallback if you run out.

And why didn't you take a smaller tent or buy your own camping trolley before you went....or hook up with friends. Maybe they've got wise to your dependency on others?

I bet you were popular on the campsite with your 8 man tent for one person. I don't understand why you didn't organise another inhaler to take with you, get a smaller tent and buy a cheap trolley to carry all your stuff. Was this your first festival? It's not the festival's fault you were so disorganised.

You're an adult, all of these things happened to you as a result of poor planning and a lack of preparation. Nobody owed you any help.

It's exceptionally unreasonable for you not to have ensured you had adequate medication for a condition like asthma. I mean... what the hell were you thinking!?

When you're camping, even for a festival, you should bring appropriate and manageable resources. An eight-man tent for one person is just silly.

If you're recently had a minor procedure that can result in cramping and bleeding, you really should have thought about the physical exertion required to lug around a tent that heavy before travelling.

The buggies would be for festival transport, not to hire to drive worn out festival goers through the mud & hills. How would you have gotten the buggy back to them?

Going into the bush for a festival & assuming their would be a medical tent to just hand it inhalers is very risky. Why didn’t you get another at the pharmacy in the morning?

You went to an event unprepared & this caused you to experience some discomfort getting to & from the festival, but that is your responsibility

Why not just go on gumtree & find a cheap 2 man tent? How did you even put up an 8 man tent alone ?

The whole situation sounds bizarre. On one hand you sound independent but on the other very disorganised & rely on others to pity, help you out & give you things.

To be honest, if I were going to a festival on my own after having an operation and with asthma, I wouldn't borrow an 8 man tent, I'd invest in a single person tent.