Camping Equipment Left at British Festival to Be Sent to Refugees

Multiple complains have been filed because of the amount of waste produced during the festival

Every August, a pair of annual music festivals take place in Reading and Leeds in England. This year, over 180,000 people visited the events on the last weekend of the month.

Once the event ended on Monday 30th, the site used was described as “a war zone”. With thousands of tents being left behind every year, the festivals become an abandoned wasteland. Therefore, festival organizers authorized charities to salvage materials during the two-week cleanup.

Hoping to put the discarded items to better use, Hertz For Refugees collected camping equipment from the site. After visiting Little John’s Farm, the hosting place for the event, the organization left with 2,300 tents and 500 sleeping bags. These items are going to be sent to France as they could be “life-saving” for refugees.

Similarly, Raise The Roof gathered tents and camping gear at the Leeds location. This initiative aims to donate what has been collected to homeless people in Hull.

Volunteers collected over 2,000 tents

Carl Simpson, a representative for this organization, commented, “What we saw was just mind-blowing. We scrimp and scrape to get everything we can, we don’t get any funding from anyone - we just rely on what we can get and to see the wastefulness.”

The CEO of Herts For Refugees, Angus Clark, shares Simpsons’ sentiment. Even though the abandoned materials were welcomed, he thought the visitors should take their equipment home to reach higher sustainability.

As the pictures and videos of abandoned tents reached social media, the festival and its attendees were highly criticized. Many users expressed their discontent with sustainability management and demanded solutions for future festivals.

Bibliography

Eede, C. (2021, September 7)Tents and Camping Gear Left at Reading Festival to be Donated to Refugees. DJ Magazine. https://djmag.com/news/tents-and-camping-gear-left-reading-festival-be-donated-refugees

Rhoden-Paul, A. (2021, September 2) Reading Festival: Discarded tents to be sent to refugees. https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-berkshire-58424375

Ross, G. (2021, September 3) ​Tents and Camping Gear Left at Reading Festival to Be Given to Refugees. Mix Magazine. https://mixmag.net/read/readings-leeds-leftover-tents-refugees-festival-news