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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

AIBU to think people should be fined if they leave their tents?

136 replies

adhdforme · 31/08/2022 21:55

I have just seen the mess left behind at the Reading festival. An absolute disgrace! The amount of rubbish and tents left behind that organisers are forced to clear up. What makes people think this is ok? I have:

a) Always wondered why people feels it's ok to leave their mess behind like this. They obviously don't care

b) Can't comprehend how people can pay good money for a tent only to chuck it away after

c) Never been to a festival because I know I just couldn't handle the filth and chaos of it all, so I struggle to understand the above two points.

Is there not a way event organisers can encourage attendees to tidy up after themselves? More waste bins? Attendees given a ticket / wrist band that shows they did or didn't arrive with a tent and then fined at the end if they do not leave with what they came with? As I said I've not been to a festival before, so I have no idea how it all works. But I find the aftermath absolutely disgusting 😡

OP posts:
BashfulClam · 31/08/2022 21:58

Our tent got stolen so we’d be fined for being robbed?

PuttingDownRoots · 31/08/2022 21:59

Its the same debate every year.

Some people don't care
Some people leave them because they are broken
Some seem to think its a way of donating (but don't understand a lot of stuff can't be salvaged)
Some are just too drunk/hungover

They can't provide enough bins.

HangOnToYourself · 31/08/2022 22:00

It would be so.difficult to police, I dont think its feesable.

JackieDaws · 31/08/2022 22:00

You're right. But you'll find that the entitled people here will come up with excuse after excuse as to why their tent has been left behind.

Amd if your tent does get stolen, report it to security so you don't get fined.

MatildaTheCat · 31/08/2022 22:02

I believe most Festival organisers pay staff by way of free tickets to clear up afterwards and any tents and equipment that is reusable will be recycled. It is indeed a shameful sight.

The Reading festival has an atrocious reputation for this type of behaviour from it ( mostly extremely young) attendees. I guess the entrance fee covers the clear up but the waste, especially when equipment is deliberately damaged, is awful.

Fining people is totally impossible though. They’ve left.

Metabigot · 31/08/2022 22:02

Some people take so many drugs that they are incapable of taking a tent down.

Cheap tent probably costs less than the drugs they took.

MrsRobinsonsHandprints · 31/08/2022 22:04

Some people leave them because they are broken

And we are not talking about the tents.

veganmayo · 31/08/2022 22:06

Some festivals have an incentive where you get a small amount of your ticket price refunded when you take in bags of rubbish and recycling to to waste points. Doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with tents being left but can help with the overall state of campsites as people leave.

But Reading campsites are notoriously awful, perhaps because it’s a ‘beginners’ festival full of very young and often underage people who don’t fully understand or appreciate the whole experience yet. They’re just excited to be away from home on their own - often for the first time.

Applebark · 31/08/2022 22:06

Metabigot · 31/08/2022 22:02

Some people take so many drugs that they are incapable of taking a tent down.

Cheap tent probably costs less than the drugs they took.

Assholes on drugs are still assholes before the drugs. Its not the drugs that make you an asshole. Many other events go ahead with plenty on drugs and much less rubbish left behind. 15k people at Shambala festival this same weekend and ZERO tents were left behind.

User148563 · 31/08/2022 22:09

DS goes to Glastonbury every year it is on and the odd other festival and has used the same tent for the past 12 years when he started going, it's ridiculous that people use them then throw away

Koifish · 31/08/2022 22:12

As someone who was there this year I agree the place is left in a state and it’s unacceptable. However there are many many issues to address as to why this is. On Sunday night many people (including ourselves) left urgently because of people setting fire and slashing tents, starting fights, and throwing piss amongst other things. We managed to pack our tent away in time but in some camps the situation was a lot more dangerous.

Security was there but seemed powerless after a point and were just running about putting out fires.

Other issues were there was hardly any bins. In the camp I was staying in I saw only 4 covering a few thousand people.

Solutions could possibly be raising the age to over 18s (the majority of the trouble was being caused by young lads) and some sort of environment deposit were £50 is charged to campers but they get it back if they hand in a bag of rubbish or something like that.

KatieAlcock · 31/08/2022 22:14

Go to Greenbelt! No litter, no tents left.

Original poster
adhdforme · 31/08/2022 22:18

Koifish · 31/08/2022 22:12

As someone who was there this year I agree the place is left in a state and it’s unacceptable. However there are many many issues to address as to why this is. On Sunday night many people (including ourselves) left urgently because of people setting fire and slashing tents, starting fights, and throwing piss amongst other things. We managed to pack our tent away in time but in some camps the situation was a lot more dangerous.

Security was there but seemed powerless after a point and were just running about putting out fires.

Other issues were there was hardly any bins. In the camp I was staying in I saw only 4 covering a few thousand people.

Solutions could possibly be raising the age to over 18s (the majority of the trouble was being caused by young lads) and some sort of environment deposit were £50 is charged to campers but they get it back if they hand in a bag of rubbish or something like that.

Wow. Nightmare. This supports the very reason why I do not go to festivals lol. I'd love to go for the music, but the mess and chaos of it all would do my head in.

And you only saw 4 bins!?! This really is just unacceptable. I do like the idea mentioned by a few people about being given some money in return for bagging up rubbish. I think the organisers of these events really need to start being a bit more responsible.

Does anyone know how long it takes to clean up a site like this? What is the land used for during the rest of the year? It will be impossible to clean the whole thing of smaller bits if rubbish!

OP posts:
willstarttomorrow · 31/08/2022 22:35

Festivals are very different now. I used to go to Reading and Glastonbury and other lesser known festivals from mid 90s. I used to head to HMV and buy a ticket and then we would borrow a tent if we did not have one. Now you can buy a 'festival' tent from about £20 and no one buys these to take down and reuse. No way this can be policed and to be honest organisers do not care- it is a massive, commercial, money making machine. The whole culture around festivals has changed- I am not saying that in a 'it was better in my day' type way. That is just the way it is. They used to be a bit alternative and now they are pretty mainstream events which loads of young people head to.

Afly · 31/08/2022 22:37

also at reading people start acting like absolute knobs on the last night- setting fire to stuff, throwing piss over peoples tents etc so I think a lot of people just leave at that point and forget about trying to pack away their tent in that chaos.

user1471597558 · 31/08/2022 23:15

I misread and thought you meant people should be permanently trapped inside the tents.

Original poster
adhdforme · 31/08/2022 23:19

user1471597558 · 31/08/2022 23:15

I misread and thought you meant people should be permanently trapped inside the tents.

😂😂😂

The festival would have probably been a. I have more pleasant and civil place if that rule had been in place.

For reference this is what I'm referring to: apple.news/AToIVsd6tT56IPm43MgviNg

OP posts:
Original poster
adhdforme · 31/08/2022 23:20

*a much more

OP posts:
Honeyroar · 31/08/2022 23:24

HangOnToYourself · 31/08/2022 22:00

It would be so.difficult to police, I dont think its feesable.

I don’t think it would. They pay a £50 deposit that they only get back when they prove that they’ve got tent/sleeping bags etc with them when they leave (tickets scanned again when they leave if they pass muster and money returned to their bank account). It would help if parents bollocked them for not bringing them home.

At Leeds festival people burned other people’s tents. 😱
Perhaps the answer is to not allow camping.

GooglyEyeballs · 31/08/2022 23:27

Maybe charging extra for the cleaning/eco fee would probably be more reliable but that would be penalising people who do clean up up after themselves. It's a tricky one!

Skinnermarink · 31/08/2022 23:30

At a rock festival I went to in South Korea, you weren’t allowed to bring your own tent at all but had to hire one once there.

obviously, the capacity of this festival was much smaller, and that does involve quite a lot of organisation, but generally people wanted their £50 deposit back so duly took it down and didn’t piss on it either. Except my mate, who was too hungover, and laid on the grass while she entreated passing men to do it for her.

imnotwhoyouthinkiam · 31/08/2022 23:32

KatieAlcock · 31/08/2022 22:14

Go to Greenbelt! No litter, no tents left.

I leave Reading for Greenbelt Grin much more civilised.

Setting fire to tents terrifies me. They go up so quickly you don't really stand a Chance of getting out. And the tents are so closely packed at festivals that a fire could spread quickly. Scary scary.

SouthOfFrance · 31/08/2022 23:36

The cost of the clean up is already built into the price of a ticket.

At the end of a festival the organisers just need people to leave, can you imagine the massive delays if security check everyone has a tent and sleeping bag with them on the way out? That's a totally unworkable idea.

JugglingJanuary · 31/08/2022 23:36

People throwing wee on tents or blokes actually peeing on them, throwing up, setting light to them. If my teens were there I'd rather they got out safely than worried about a tent.

Reading is a bloody nightmare every year. It would be an ideal venue for a first festival as we live less than 20miles away, but absolutely no fucking way will they be going.

the 'cleaners' are usually paid with free entry & mass clean ups are not that expensive, they must, by now, take it into account with the ticket pricing. Refunds for taking tents sleeping bags our will only cause more theft.

No, humans shouldn't behave like that, but it seems the world is full of stupid selfish fucks now,

Ihatethenewlook · 31/08/2022 23:38

Afly · 31/08/2022 22:37

also at reading people start acting like absolute knobs on the last night- setting fire to stuff, throwing piss over peoples tents etc so I think a lot of people just leave at that point and forget about trying to pack away their tent in that chaos.

Exactly this. The amount of tents getting set on fire by drunk and drugged up arseholes is fucking scary. It’s such a volatile environment that a £25 pop up tent is at the bottom of the list of priorities when packing up. I don’t think the majority of those left behind were done so with intent, it just wasn’t worth the aggravation of taking them in the end, you just want to get out of there. My bil does litter picking at a lot of these events. They get to keep what they find and believe me, some of the stuff that’s been left behind in the tents have definitely not been left on purpose