Love the farm?

[Alvoram]

I just stumbled upon this on Youtube, and I am absolutely gobsmacked and heart broken. I thought the people that attended Glasto were nice people who 'cared' about the planet and all who inhabit it.

Of course I've seen pictures of a few tents left behind etc, so I knew that it happened to some extent, but I had no idea it happened, or at least 'has' happened to this degree in the past. I thought it was just a tiny insignificant minority of festival goers who did this. This video suggests that the minority isn't so tiny and definitely not insignificant. 

Obviously I'm sure this comes as no surprise to most of you, but it's absolutely shocked me. 

Please tell me it's not like this anymore? 

 

[Crazyfool01]

its not 

[jimmillen]

I certainly haven't been around on a Monday afternoon to see for myself, but my perception from what I've seen on social, what the festival themselves have shared etc. is that it's nowhere near as bad these days. That video is from 13 years ago after all! 🙂

Sure someone with actual experience will be able to add more. 

[offmytrolley]

It's generally got better, I think, but it's also very weather dependent too.

There are a lot of different types of people that visit Glasto, and a lot of people overall, so there are bound to be a sizable amount who assume someone else will tidy things up after them. Some of them just don't give a crap at all, and some of them will try and justify it by pointing to the charities that try and salvage a very small amount (in comparison to the total number) of left behind tents.

Edited June 13, 2022 by offmytrolley

[4AssedMonkey]

It is better now than 2009.   A lot better.  That said you will still get a significant number of people who leave their crap behind.  Varies hugely by field too.  Family camping and quiet areas tend to be fairly spotless, Pennards/Park Home/Oxylers (party fields) tend to be worse IMO.

[Nathan Explosion]

Literally 13 years old that video, really wouldn't put much stock in it!

My own experience of Glastonbury having been 4 times, is that it's way ahead of pretty much every other festival in terms of people tidying up after themselves. You do get some stuff left behind because you're always going to get some less 'loving' people in such a big crowd, but it's worlds better than the apocalyptic likes of Leeds fest etc.

Only festival I've been to which beats it is Shambala. Swear you'd hardly know a festival had taken place there by the Monday afternoon!

[Dave_c]

This was 2016, hasn't really got much better

 

 

Edited June 13, 2022 by Dave_c

[TheDayman]

The "Love The Farm, Leave No Trace" campaign was very successful in 2019. 99.3% of tents were taken home.

https://www.nme.com/news/music/emily-eavis-praises-absolutely-incredible-glastonbury-festivalgoers-99-per-cent-tents-taken-home-clean-up-worthy-farm-2523009

Hasn't been pushed as much this time around, which is a slight worry. Unfortunately it seems like the kind of thing that certain people need to be constantly reminded of.

[Alvoram]

Thanks all, I'm out of likes, but it's reassuring to know that it has gotten somewhat better, although the 2016 video is quite saddening... Let's hope for 2019 weather and not 2016 weather then!!!

Is it possible to volunteer for just helping with the cleanup on the Monday? If you already have a ticket, and all of Monday free, is it something you could do? 

[Crazyfool01]

1 minute ago, Alvoram said:

Thanks all, I'm out of likes, but it's reassuring to know that it has gotten somewhat better, although the 2016 video is quite saddening... Let's hope for 2019 weather and not 2016 weather then!!!

Is it possible to volunteer for just helping with the cleanup on the Monday? If you already have a ticket, and all of Monday free, is it something you could do? 

on the app is a sign up for worthy warriors ... 

[jparx]

7 minutes ago, Dave_c said:

This was 2016, hasn't really got much better

 

 

Not to defend this at all, and I always take everything back with me regardless, but with worse weather you will always find people leave more stuff behind. Leaving in 2019, it looked nothing like this video. It definitely has improved significantly on average, and is far better than most other festivals.

[Dave_c]

2 minutes ago, jparx said:

Not to defend this at all, and I always take everything back with me regardless, but with worse weather you will always find people leave more stuff behind. Leaving in 2019, it looked nothing like this video. It definitely has improved significantly on average, and is far better than most other festivals.

Yeah the 2016 weather certainly didn't help. I stayed in Campervan west in 2019 so didn't see the campsites on Monday, encouraging if it has indeed got better.

[robbie1983]

No excuse for littering.
 

reckon if you had the time and inclination there is grands to be made on the tents left behind 

[Alvoram]

8 minutes ago, crazyfool1 said:

on the app is a sign up for worthy warriors ... 

Thanks, I've just signed up. 🙂 

It asked where I was camping though, and I'm in Sticklinch, so I hope that is ok. 😕 

[jparx]

1 minute ago, Dave_c said:

Yeah the 2016 weather certainly didn't help. I stayed in Campervan west in 2019 so didn't see the campsites on Monday, encouraging if it has indeed got better.

It can definitely still improve, and hopefully the call to scale back the camping shops on site might help. I think a lot of people turn up with minimal gear and then buy a lot on site with the sole purpose of using it for the weekend and leaving it there.

[NickM45]

Working at Boardmasters last year - on the Monday I wandered around the site before heading home - picked up 5 brand new camping chairs, 1 tent, 3x roll mats and various camping gear, new pegs, bungee cords, head lamp torches, 45ish cans of beer still in boxes, 5x camping stools, mini trolley - all which people left behind.

Some of my work crew took home large 5 berth tents. People leave stuff instead of taking it home which is totally unacceptable. I did my best to take as much as I could and I handed it out to friends on my return. Simple rule - if you take it in - take it home.

[blutarsky]

 

 

 

 

[blutarsky]

 

 

[Alvoram]

10 minutes ago, blutarsky said:

 

 

 

 

'If' that picture is pre cleanup then that is an incredible difference.... As it doesn't even show a single piece of litter!!! Except for the one tent of course. 

[Simsy]

13 minutes ago, blutarsky said:

 

 

 

 

Wonder how many of the 99.3% were taken home by the people who brought them, and how many were abandoned and taken home by someone else.

[Leyrulion]

7 minutes ago, Alvoram said:

'If' that picture is pre cleanup then that is an incredible difference.... As it doesn't even show a single piece of litter!!! Except for the one tent of course. 

Why would they clean up and leave a tent? 

It was a lot better in 2019, there is still rubbish so it's not perfect (e.g. fairly sure this isn't Oxlyers) but I'm not entirely sure why others are holding up 5+ year old videos and assuming it's still the same.

Admittedly this is only the 3rd festival in the last 6 years so will be interesting to see how much attitudes have changed.

[Alvoram]

1 minute ago, Leyrulion said:

Why would they clean up and leave a tent? 

It was a lot better in 2019, there is still rubbish so it's not perfect (e.g. fairly sure this isn't Oxlyers) but I'm not entirely sure why others are holding up 5+ year old videos and assuming it's still the same.

Admittedly this is only the 3rd festival in the last 6 years so will be interesting to see how much attitudes have changed.

I have no idea why they'd do that, maybe somebody was still in that tent on their first pass through?

I'm not suggesting anything is iffy about it. I'm just commenting that there is no rubbish in sight, no cans, bottles, nothing, so it does 'look' as if the cleaning crew have been through. If that's not the case then that is an incredible turnaround!

[MoonBuggy]

Wasn't it only 2016 or so that they started the "Love the farm, leave no trace" campaign? [Edit: Looks like it was maybe 2011-12, but became a "pledge" in 2016.] It's definitely a bit of a shame that people need reminding to take care of their space, but prior to that I remember it just not being such a thing to even think about the site - like, the fact it'd be trashed was just part of the deal to a lot of people. 

Nowadays there's much more of a focus on taking care of the farm, and most people are very respectful about it. Obviously there's always a handful who fuck it up either way, but it seems like the vast majority were just a bit thoughtless in the past and totally sorted their shit out now they've been given a nudge in the right direction. 

57 minutes ago, Nathan Explosion said:

Only festival I've been to which beats it is Shambala. Swear you'd hardly know a festival had taken place there by the Monday afternoon!

https://www.shambalafestival.org/six-abandoned-tents/ - one of the many reasons I love that festival and its crowd so much! Gonna be weird missing it this year, even if it is for a big trip with mates I haven't seen since pre-pandemic. 

Edited June 13, 2022 by MoonBuggy

[matichin]

What drives me crazy during the festival is you can normally tell who is going to leave a load of crap by how they treat their campsite while they are there. Plenty of bin bags you can tie to your tent and fill up over the 5 days. No excuses.

On a related note, hope there's not too much bin overflowing around the site. The walkway at the back of the Other always has bins completely overflowing so there's nowhere to put rubbish, leading to junk piled up.

Its getting better, but scummy people gonna be scummy.

[Glast0baby]

I always take everything home and leave the campsite spotless.  The bit I find difficult is the stages when you have empty cartons, etc, and the bins are only on the outskirts of the crowd.  Try my best to create a pile of stuff and take it with me to a bin at the end, but it's harder to do in muddy years.  Any handy tips or tricks ppl have developed for this issue which doesn't involve putting messy rubbish in my clean bag?