A Small Rant About A Growing Trend At Music Festivals

Although on Breaking More Waves (and in life generally) I don’t particularly like to make judgements or complaints about the actions of others unless they’re situations of life and death, sometimes things just get to me. This is one of those occasions.

This video, of a small section of the Glastonbury Festival campsites after punters have gone home, says an awful lot about parts of the society we now live in; one which certain elements appear to be obscenely wealthy and have an utter disregard for responsibility.

I don’t care how tiring the mud was, how bad your hangover was, how heavy your tent was to carry, how difficult it is to pack away, how cheap the tent was to buy; take the thing home, if for no other reason than a bit of respect for the people whose land you have camped on. And if it’s broken? At least dismantle it and leave it at the appropriate recycling collection point on the campsite.

Everyone that went to the festival was asked to sign up to Glastonbury’s ‘Love the Farm, Leave no Trace’ pledge when they completed their ticket transaction. This pledge stated:

– I will use the toilets provided and not pee on the land.
– I will use the bins provided and not throw away my rubbish on the ground.
– I will take all my belongings home with me again, including my tent and camping equipment.
– I will bag up all my rubbish using the bin bags provided by stewards and use the recycling pens and bins in each campsite

I've been going to festivals for over two decades and it seems to me that from around the start of this decade tent littering has become more and more prominent. It almost seems now that it's an acceptable thing to do amongst certain well off individuals. This makes me very sad. It is just such a waste. If you’re one of the people who went to Glastonbury, or any other music festival, and left your tent there after the festival, I ask you to watch this video and then reconsider your actions. 

Glastonbury Post-Festival Walkabout