Drone footage reveals tents, rubbish left behind at Reading Festival

Festivals have traditionally struggled to get revellers to take all their belongings off site

A sea of abandoned tents and rubbish was left behind at the Reading music festival this weekend.

Drone footage obtained by Sky News and the BBC among others shows hundreds of tents and rubbish scattered across the site’s greenfields after the festivities ended.

Tens of thousands of festival goers are believed to have descended on the site this weekend to see headliners including The 1975 perform.

Festivals have traditionally struggled to get revellers to take all their belongings off site and put rubbish in the correct bins despite the environmental impact of the waste. There is a mistaken belief among festival goers that if they leave their tents they will be donated to charity.

Festivals have urged visitors to leave no trace and to respect the land. One festival that has had more success than others in keeping on top of the litter this year is Glastonbury.

Photos of the aftermath of the festival appeared to show a decline in the debris left behind. It was not immediately clear, however, if this was due to visitors becoming more environmentally conscious or due to an uptick in litter picking over the weekend.

Either way the site looked to be in a lot better condition on Monday than it had been in previous years. And in 2019, the last time Glastonbury festival was on before this year, organiser Emily Eavis said 99.3 per cent of all tents were taken home, indicating a behaviour change among attendees.

Meanwhile, there were reports of violence and tent-torching at the end of the Reading Festival this weekend. While some festival goers also complained that objects were being thrown as fights broke out.

The Independent has contacted Reading Festival for comment.