Thousands of tents left behind at festivals as attendees wrongly believe they will go to charity

90 per cent of tents that get left behind end up in landfill or the incinerator

(Getty Images/iStockphoto)

Festivals can be a fairly gruelling experience.

After a few days of revelry, the predestined cocktail of sleepless nights, excess cider and cheesy chips start to take its toll.

Hence why some attendees might not be feeling so chipper come departure day, when the logistical complexities of dismantling a tent and bringing it home are simply too much to bear for the quintessential flower-crown-wearing hedonist.

Thousands of tents are abandoned at festivals each year, but it’s not just post-festival lethargy - or poor weather - that is to blame.

According to experts, many festival goers leave their tents behind because they think they will be donated to charities.

Despite some festivals advertising that leftover tents will go to philanthropic use, up to 90 per cent of tents that get left end up in landfill or the incinerator, explains Matt Wedge, director of Festival Waste Reclamation & Distribution.

Wedge says that the number of tents left behind is rising, estimating that 20 per cent of the tents at this year’s Leeds Festival were abandoned, surmounting to roughly 7,000.

“Reading is usually about as bad but twice as big, so 14,000 tents could have been abandoned there,” he tells The Independent.

However, organisers at Reading and Leeds Festival, which took place over the bank holiday weekend, tell The Independent that 2018 was a record year for salvagers, with 930 individuals coming from approximately 200 voluntary and charitable organisations to collect various reusable items such as tents and sleeping bags.

These were donated to organisations including local Scouts and Girl Guides, Sea Cadets, Help For Refugees and Lombok Earthquake Relief.

“The salvaging will continue this week,” a festival spokesperson adds, “alongside an extensive cleaning operation provided by Closed Loop Recycling (Reading) and Ryans Cleaning (Leeds).

“Previous years saved approximately 30 tonnes from going to landfill or incineration.”

Charitable intentions aside, Wedge adds that there are countless reasons as to why so many tents get left behind at festivals.

“A lot of the tents are very cheap supermarket tents marketed as 'festival tents', which as far as I can tell just means 'disposable tent',” he says.

“People can't really be bothered to take their tent away with them on the Monday morning when they're hungover and tired and since they have very little financial incentive to do so they don't bother.”

However, research carried out in 2013 by Teresa Moore, director at A Greener Festival, reveals that 60 per cent of tents get left behind because they are broken, which poses a number of environmental issues.

This is because they are typically made from synthetic fabrics, which are in effect a form of plastic, she tells The Independent.

“And we know from this year’s campaigns about plastic that even if it breaks down, it stays in the environment and is likely entering the food chain, which is not good for anyone”.

While there have been efforts from festival organisers to collaborate with charities, inviting them to collect leftover tents for reuse for refugees, Moore explains that this plan has somewhat backfired.

“Unfortunately this has turned into one of those festival myths: ‘it is now alright to leave your tent because they all go to charity,’ I have found this during my ongoing research but it has become widely recognised that this has unintentionally created an even bigger problem,” she adds.

In terms of addressing the problem, he says one popular idea is to employ a tent deposit scheme, whereby festival goers would pay a deposit to bring their tent to the festival, which would be returned to them if they take their tent home.

“A similar thing happens with litter in that some festivals make attendees pay a £10 'eco bond', which is returned to them if they fill up a bag of rubbish and hand it in at the end of the festival,” he adds.

“Another avenue to explore would be to have helpers in the campsites who help people put their tents down (a lot of people can't do pop ups) and allow them to donate their tent to charity afterwards.”