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

[adhdforme]

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 😡

Non issue the organisers clean it up it’s all factored into the price of the ticket for the staff to clean it
some festivals donate the tents left to charities

whilst the pictures look shocking it’s not left like that

also if you make people take there rubbish home more than likely it will end up in the first hedge they come across

Exactly. Two words - Burning Man.

60,000 per festival. Absolute zero waste policy, down to people pick up individual pieces of glitter. Really.

oh, only drugs? Not the arseholes who get pissed, or are just arseholes anyway?

This usually only really happens at Leeds and reading. I've been to Leeds twice and one of those times people were setting fire to their tents which was pretty scary

The sort of people that go to festivals aren't the sort of people that care about leaving a tent for others to clear away

Wow with the generalisations:
"the sort of people that go to festivals" represent an extremely wide demograpic range. And as PPs have said, those who attend Shambala and Burning Man don't leave any mess behind. Same with other more eco-conscious festivals (eg the Green Gathering).

I've been going to festivals for decades - just not Reading, which has never appealed to me - and cannot imagine any situation where people would find it acceptable to deliberately set fire to a nylon tent.

Most festivals are pretty well-organised in terms of providing recycling bins, having a drop-off place for those who do want to donate unwanted camping equipment to a good cause, and employing litter-pickers to systematically check that every area's been left spotless (to the extent of removing even small items like cigarette butts from the ground, as these aren't good for cows or other animals which may live in those fields the rest of the year).

Having said that, I'd be tempted to cancel Reading Festival's licence for next year, as the organisers seem to have such a cavalier attitude towards young people's safety.

Don’t be stupid.

Better than fines would be a lifetime ban from ever attending the festival again, and perhaps other festivals run by the same company.

This has never happened to the rock and bike festivals I’ve been to. Admittedly it’s been years since I went. No trouble, no mess. Different types of people. Laughable how plenty of those buying and leaving cheap tents are the first to shout out about the environment.
Sme with national trust properties I visit. They don’t provide bins You take your crap home. Reduce, reuse, recycle.

My DS was there and he said that people were going round breaking other peoples tents. He was disgusted with a lot of people’s behaviour, and he won’t be going again.

Leeds was full of pissed 16 year olds who had just completed their exams. It was carnage.

Reading festival is notorious for being messy, young and grim. Most festivals aren't like that. I assume the organisers are prepared for the mess.

I was at the Reading Festival this year. There were no where near enough bins inside or outside the arena. It was filthy. Much worse than any other year and we have been going for about 8 years. I have never seen it so bad.

Ice cream vendors also ripping off people. Advertising one price but typing in a different price on tap and go machine but not pointing it at you so you couldn't see. She was not happy when I turned it around and caught her out.

Boys also just pissing anywhere in the arena rather than go to the toilet. Foul children. Their parents would be horrified. Saying that, I spoke to a few and they were very respectful and horrified by what they were seeing.

Also saw one young boy so off his face he just fell over onto his back and just lay there. I had to force a security man to do something about it. He just wasn't interested.

Really badly run this year.

Vegan Camp is the same. No litter, no tents left.

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.
Loads of festivals aren't like that though. Reading is notorious for awful behaviour and poor security. I've been to Latitude, Black Deer, Green Man and End of the Road. Hardly ever seen anyone ridiculously drunk let alone on anything else. Very rare to see rubbish left outside tents or strewn around the arena. Never seen a tent left behind.

There's a vegan camp?! Have you been, what was it like? Would love to get back into festival going but I'm so phobic of other people being dicks these days!! Also would have a toddler and a baby in tow so not sure if anything is suitable for young kids really.

I used to do Leeds or redding every year, Sunday nights have always been horrific.
its well known some people (almost always exclusively young men)
will buy a Sunday ticket just to go into the campsite to cause chaos and try to start a riot.

it was well known even in the early 00’s if you didn’t want to loose your tent you packed it up as soon as the bands finished, if not before.

these gangs of people will literally go around slashing and setting fire to tents after stealing from them.
they usually build massive bonfires, using anything they can get their hands on as kindling.

it seems to be really popular to the throw the gas canisters from camping stoves on the fires so they explode.
it goes on all night and is so loud when they explode.

this has only gotten worse as the years have gone on.

the sites used to always be relatively tidy until Sunday night, that’s when it gets absolutely trashed.

we stopped going in the end because during the last one we went to people started causing chaos on the Saturday too.

@KatieAlcock

As most the vicars in the midlands are at greenbelt, I would be very amused if there was problems . I used to go but it was close enough to go for a day.

And lots of awful Christian rock!

Yes. It makes me really sad. Angry actually.

We went to the vegan camp out this year.
i wasn’t interested in a lot of the ‘talks’ we just went as part of a group for the food and the camping.
it was expensive but actually probably one of the best camp outs I’ve been to in years.
The atmosphere was just fantastic, everyone was so nice and we made friends with so many people.
I was really pleasantly surprised by how much stuff there was going on there.

i would definitely recommend it.

Hahahhahahahhahahahahhaha this made me LOL

I'm the same. Normally I absolutely detest litter and waste, but in the context of festivals I'm a bit meh about it. It all gets cleared up in the end.

I had an email this year from a refugee charity that I support, asking if I would volunteer to go to Boardmasters when it finished, to gather up all the left behind stuff to take out to Calais.

The kids know this is what will happen to whatever gets left and so they don't worry about littering so much.

Plus, like pp has said, the cost of the clear up is built into the ticket price and enables people who may not be able to afford to go normally to go for free as litter pickers.

To everyone who is put off festivals by this, I'd also like to state that not all festivals are like this. You just don't go to a festival aimed at teenagers!

By the way, I'm really not saying that it's ideal, just that it's not the worst.

Wild Wanderers - not a single piece of rubbish left - the litter picking squad were not needed.

The reality is that different festivals attract different people - i have attended 2 -3 festivals every year since the late 70's and this started happening about a decade or so ago - one of the major contributory factor is cheap tents.

Tents used to be an investment and used for years and years if not for life and noone would have thought of abandoning something that cost so much. But now you can get them for £20 and so for many people not worth the effort of packing them up - especially when wet as these would have been and especially with the ridiculously small bags you have to try and get it back into and the ridiculously long walk back to your car.

I'm afraid it is another symptom of our disposable lifestyle.

And the fact we all know local homeless charities collect the tents.

@JugglingJanuary It was exactly the same in the 90s when I used to go to Reading (also grew up about 10 miles away). Nothing has changed. Let your young person go. If the last night gets rough they can call you to collect or just leave and get a cab home? Or you could let them go but arrange to pick them up after the Sunday headliners. Everyone's always over it by Sunday night anyway. We used to cmpa from Thursday morning. Endless.