Thousands of tents abandoned at festivals around the UK after bank holiday weekend

The festival season is sadly drawing to an end, climaxing this August bank holiday weekend when everyone and their mums seemed to be dancing in a field wishing they were slightly cleaner. But unfortunately, when festivals close their gates it’s the same old story: a shocking amount of tents and rubbish gets left behind and most of it will end up in landfill.

The likes of Leeds /Reading, Creamfields and Boardmasters have all seen an enormous quantity of tents abandoned by festival-goers eager to flee the campsite.

This is what Leeds Festival looked like yesterday:

Leeds festival ends for another year, as thousands upon thousands abandon their tents this morning as the last remaining visitors begin to leave #Leedsfest https://t.co/sRTb6S4ewh pic.twitter.com/GSh5ytUBGs

— Yapp (@YappAppLtd) August 30, 2021

Here’s what Boardmasters looked like after the Cornish festival came to an end last week:

Just seen a video of what was left behind after Boardmasters in Cornwall. It’s a disgrace!These young people who march on cities telling us we are trashing the planet! As ever shocking hypocrisy with their single use tents…everything. Wonder how many caught Covid from the waste? pic.twitter.com/gNyq1Li2UG

— Is it me? 🤷🏻‍♀️ (@ClareEGabriel3) August 28, 2021

And all these images have got people on Twitter wondering: what happens to the tents that get left behind at festivals?

@Creamfields

This is the rubbish left behind after the weekend.

Most of those tents are perfectly reusable. What will happen to them? pic.twitter.com/QHBfk9hu0l

— a life less random (@Theactualbarry) August 31, 2021

Sustainability manager at Reading Festival Lilly Robbins revealed the true scale of the clean-up operation after a festival finishes, and exactly what happens to all the abandoned tents.

“In some instances they do go to charity,” Lilly told BBC Breakfast. “The ultimate messaging is: take your tent home. It’s the best thing people can do.

“We do have salvagers come onto the sight each year, so for a few days after the festival finishes they take what they can for homeless charities and food banks.”

The site at Reading Festival is littered with abandoned tents and rubbish after a weekend of music.

Sustainability manager Lily Robbins tells #BBCBreakfast how big of an operation the clean up will be.https://t.co/u4HaSgtjaK pic.twitter.com/I9FoK4PC1K

— BBC Breakfast (@BBCBreakfast) August 31, 2021

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One Leeds-based community group collected tents, camp chairs, air mattresses, gazebos, sleeping bags and roll mats from Leeds Festival.

1/2 Good News everyone! With the help of Andy of Sure Insulation and David of @OurFutureLeeds we were able to scavenge at Leeds festival today and got loads of great stuff for the Library!
We've now got tents, camp chairs, air mattresses, gazebos, sleeping bags and roll mats etc pic.twitter.com/sPkm2G7gZG

— buynowtls6 (@buynowtls6) August 30, 2021

But the vast majority of stuff left behind will end up on landfill sites. “We take off as much as we can but unfortunately the rest does have to be taken off site to a recycling plant,” Lilly Robbins said. “That goes through an incredibly lengthy process. Unfortunately tents are one of the worst things to try and recycle.”

This Twitter thread explains the true environmental impact of leaving your tent behind at a festival.

1/5 It’s festival season ⛺️

Festivals produce a huge amount of waste, and one of the most damaging being the standard plastic tents left behind.

Here’s what you need to know about how standard festival tents impact our environment. pic.twitter.com/nCx5PhsaoP

— Tayla Evans (@taylaaevans) August 23, 2021

The manufacturing of a standard 3.5kg tent uses up around 25kg of carbon dioxide, the same amount of pollution caused by driving a car 100 miles. A standard tent also contains the equivalent of 9,000 plastic straws.

That means from festivals alone, we’re unnecessarily dumping 875 tonnes of plastic into landfill sites every year from the UK alone.

Related articles recommended by this writer:

• Ranked: This year’s big UK festival lineups with the fewest female acts

• ‘It was surreal’: What it was actually like to go to the first festivals since lockdown

• ‘I don’t regret it at all’: We spoke to students who caught Covid after going to Boardmasters