If you’ve managed to get a ticket to one of the UK’s festivals this year, they’re bound to be the highlight of your summer.
Rolling green fields, blow-your-hair-back music, and endless pints under the sun with your best pals - is there anything better?
But while you’ll have the time of your life for a weekend, if you’re not careful with your camping kit choices, they can leave a mark on the same land you’re partying on long after the last revellers have wandered through the exit gates.
While most of us are diligent about single-use plastics in our daily lives, the thought seems to go out of the window when it comes to festivals.
Natalie Byrne, Content Marketing Manager at GO Outdoors, says: “If campers don’t take care, they can damage the beautiful surroundings that they camp in. After festival seasons, we often see fields left with rubbish piled high and tents scattered among camping zones.”
Last year, the Association of Independent Festivals (AIF) estimated that 250,000 tents were left at music festivals across the UK each year, with many winding up in landfill.
That’s enough tents to house almost every person in Hackney or half of Edinburgh. What a waste.
We get it: after a weekend of going full-throttle and with energy levels zapped, the last thing you want to do is pack up a tent. Yet if you were organised enough to bring one, the responsible thing is to take it home too.
While some festivals employ an army of volunteers to take down abandoned tents and redistribute them, there are plenty more who simply don’t have the funds or infrastructure to do so.
Everyone loses: festivals spend more money collecting and recycling tents (a cost that’s often reflected in next year’s ticket price) and punters squander money by binning a tent that could have been kept in use for many seasons to come. This year, do yourself and the planet a favour, and stick to the age-old festival motto: leave no trace.
If you’re buying a new camping tent this year, another way to help reduce waste is by seeking out designs that use recycled materials. It means you’ll help stem the flow of new plastic production and keep tents that are already in existence working. Buying part-recycled tents means you’re part of the solution, not the problem.
Not sure where to start? We’ve rounded up the best tents that use recycled materials to help make it easier to find your home away from home for your next festival.
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Vango Alpha 400 Tent
- Sleeps: 4
- Dimensions: 250 x 300 x 135cm
- Weight: 5.1kg
Vango’s Earth collection uses recycled materials where possible and includes a range of tents suitable for festivalling. The Alpha uses lightweight PowerFlex fibreglass arch poles to help with stability in practically all weather and is easy to pitch in 10 minutes, with the inner tent going up first.
The tent bag has deliberately been made oversized to make repacking a much easier and quicker task.
Buy now £110.72, Amazon
Quechua Camping Tent MH100 - 3-P - Fresh&Black
- Sleeps: 3
- Dimensions: 195 x 210 x 116cm cm
- Weight: 4.1kg
Easy on the planet and easy to assemble, Quechua’s partially recycled tent is suitable for three happy campers. The mid-sized piece is made from 8 per cent yarn combining dyed and undyed fibres, 37 per cent dope-dyed yarn and 54 per cent undyed yarn, enabling the brand to reduce carbon dioxide emissions during production.
A simple free-standing structure is a major plus, as is the side ventilation that helps with hot balmy nights. When you’re ready to go home, pack the tent up in the bag provided and spot clean.
Buy now £69.99, Decathalon
Eurohike Gaia IV XLP Eco Tent
- Sleeps: 4
- Dimensions: L 350x W 250x H 135cm
- Weight: 5.8kg
With space for four campers and a small porch to keep muddy wellies and folded camping chairs, Eurohike’s Gaia is a superb festival tent. There are two doors to keep things breezy when temperatures rise and is a quick pitch design - so easy to set up and crucially, quick to take down.
It’s been made with around 80 recycled plastic bottles, giving the tent an eco-edge too.
Buy now £99.00, Go Outdoors
Craghopper Trevelyan Eco 250 Tent Oak Green
- Sleeps: 2
- Dimensions: 3.4m x 1.5m x 1.05m
- Weight: 2.8kg
Using polyester fibres made from around 105 plastic bottles, Craghopper’s tent is ready for festivals as well as hiking, fishing and general camping trips. No need to worry about dark clouds; this option is water-repellent and guarantees to keep raindrops on the outside. It’s also easy to pack by rolling into the supplied stuff sack.
Buy now £117.50, Craghopper
Vango Beta 450XL CLR Tent
- Sleeps: 4
- Dimensions: 265 x 480 x 155cm
- Weight: 7.9kg
Take this tent to your next outdoor adventure and you’ll be pitch-perfect in just 15 minutes. Three poles work together to create an arch with plenty of sleeping space and a porch area.
The eco-credentials are built into the flysheet, which is made from single-use plastic. Packing up is a doddle thanks to the tent bag which comes with compression straps to make the design easy to to stuff back inside (just make sure it’s dry first).
Buy now £189.70, Amazon
Quechua Camping tent with poles - Arpenaz 4.1 - 4 Person - 1 Bedroom
- Sleeps: 4
- Dimensions: 240 x 210 cm
- Weight: 10.2kg
Another Quechua offering, this four-person tent comes complete with a large bedroom to snuggle into after a long day of hiking or raving stageside. Also ideal for families, this decently sized piece of equipment is an eco-friendly pick. It is made from 100 per cent dope dyed yarn, in effect reducing carbon dioxide emissions by 46 per cent during the tent’s production chain.
Note the flysheet that reduces internal condensation and the UPF 30 fabric which lets in daylight and filters out some UV rays.
Buy now £139.99, Decathalon
