Get all your news in one place.
100’s of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading
Bristol Post
Bristol Post
Entertainment
Olivia Rose Fox

Glastonbury Festival: A beautiful mess - but do revellers need to be more responsible for their litter?

Glastonbury; the multi-coloured, musical extravaganza has just come to an end after Kendrick Lamar wrapped things up with a powerful headline set on Sunday evening.

For a festival that holds its green policies dear and works hard to protect vulnerable habitats, ponds, streams, hedges and ditches by ensuring nature reserves are respected, it seems quite the contrast that festival-goers often seem to disregard the land and leave a trail of litter behind them.

After every major festival, the media coverage often continues well into the days after, showing images of overflowing bins, abandoned tents and rubbish strewn across the sweeping fields.

On Sunday, Emily Eavis herself asked Glastonbury to “PLEASE take everything home” with a tweet mid afternoon.

Emily said: "Thank you making this such a special @Glastonbury. If you're starting to think about packing up, then PLEASE take everything home with you. Let's leave this beautiful valley in the state that it deserves. Enjoy the rest of the Festival! #LoveTheFarm #LeaveNoTrace."

Let us know your thoughts in the survey below and our comments section.

Unfortunately it seemed this request fell on quite a few deaf ears as our reporters on the ground snapped pictures of rubbish left behind by revellers across the site.

Sharing a picture of a whiteboard with the words "Bye bye! Safe travels! Thank you for leaving no trace! See you next year!", TV and celebrity writer, Maisie Lillywhite said: "A message which has been repeated throughout the weekend, but carries some heavy irony and a hint of sadness with it this morning as people have left tents, camping chairs and other belongings/rubbish behind at Worthy Farm."

The messy aftermath certainly didn’t go unnoticed, a problem that the litter pickers unfortunately have to deal with.

Litter pickers tend to make their way across the site around 6am to completely clear the area, before most people are even awake.

It’s no mean feat and a significant job completed by dozens of volunteers who work tirelessly across the site during the five-day festival, the big clean-up on the Monday morning proving to be the hardest challenge of them all.

We want to know your thoughts on the matter, by asking you who you think should be responsible for the mess left behind at festivals? Do you think festival-goers themselves should take more responsibility?

Fill in our quick survey below, or click here if it fails to load.

Why not also get involved in our comments section below and let us know your thoughts in more detail? After all, the catastrophic mess left behind after most major festivals and subsequently who we think should be dealing with it certainly is a hot topic.

Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100’s of titles, curated specifically for you.
Already a member? Sign in here
Related Stories
Top stories on inkl right now
One subscription that gives you access to news from hundreds of sites
Already a member? Sign in here
Our Picks
Fourteen days free
Download the app
One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.