Free tents and other equipment

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Janne

Sent off - Not allowed to play
Feb 10, 2016
12,330
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Grand Cayman, Norway, Sweden
Online newspapers that wrote about it. Clearly stating that several Festival arrangers point out that people should take the stuff home as it will be thrown away.
The other stuff littering the sites ( according to the photos of them) are they left because the festival goers know the arrangers have a better and more efficient recycling system?

That is why I started the thread. Senseless waste of resources. Plastic being thrown away, then eventually ending up in our food chain....
 
Jul 30, 2012
3,570
224
westmidlands
Look on the bright side, someone in the less well of areas of the world, when there house gets destroyed by a hurricaine, will have an employee of a charity give them an ex festival go outdoors special dome tent to shelter themselves and there family in, its that sort of generosity that gives me faith in mankind.

Its not just festival goers, though, at a campsite in capel curig the groundsman makes a bit of extra cash selling the tents people leave behind ( 2 in the morning howling wind and rain) on ebay, all the top makes too, sometimes with equipment too.
 

Woody girl

Full Member
Mar 31, 2018
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I missed this while it was a current conversation. And I must say I have been to the Glastonbury festival and worked there. The cleanup crew work for about 3 weeks to clean up the site and its not just tents abandoned. All unclaimed lost property goes to a homeless charity. Rucksacks clothing etc. Only rubbish is thrown away. How do I know? I've worked there. Both for the festival and on the farm. It's a hard job clearing up after all the people. Years ago it would be an odd broken tent. Now realy good stuff gets left as well. You have to be a richkid to go nowadays! I've seen some good bands there that I would never have been able to see otherwise. I also spent more time in the smaller venues and discovered bands that I love and still follow that never get into mainstream. Havnt been for years as I can't afford it anymore. It's got too big.
 
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Aug 29, 2017
6
2
West Yorkshire
It's not just festivals either, last year saw a huge rise of camping in the UK we camped in a field for a few days in Dorset while we visited family, on the Saturday the weather turned and over night heavy wind and rain 30 odd tents were up (some not so much) before we went to sleep only 4 of us left in the morning. At the shower block I had a guy offer me his £800 tent for £100 which made my laugh even £100 is too much for a tent that can't make it through a little storm.
Too much disposable income,
 

Woody girl

Full Member
Mar 31, 2018
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I have often rescued stuff from the campsite rubbish. An airbed that only needed a patch. A barbecue grill perfectly useable. Two chairs that put together with a bit of ingenuity and a multitool made a perfectly good one. A whole tent thrown away as a pole had snapped. A new pole and we had another tent. It's a crazy throwaway world! By the way I have a freeway radio that needs mending... don't want to throw it away.. can anyone help?
 
Jan 13, 2019
291
144
54
Gallifrey
Just to revive this a little, in the hope that it might change a little this year.

I used to work as crew at many of the largest UK festivals and would arrive on site a week or two before kickoff and leave a week after shutdown.

The contractors given the job of clearing the site eg. Glastonbury, would, along with some random helpers and a troop of Scouts, have to check and mark every tent and sleeping bag that was left on site. I personally used to bring back several tents, bags, cooking gear....name it, with me from festivals to donate to a guy in Brighton who had taken a personal interest in helping homeless people. Make no mistake, after the Scouts etc had taken what was possible to take in the couple of hours before contractors would drive through with dozers and lorries, there were still hundred, if not thousands of fly-tipped tents and many of them weren’t cheapo Argos gear either.

With all the best will in the World, it was on many occasions a matter of life and death. I cannot count the number of drugged and unconscious casualties I found who had been abandoned in their tents and were either dangerously hypothermic, hallucinating, in a seriously deteriorated condition... you don’t want those tents... my point being that there isn’t enough time or effort put into removing fly-tipped stuff from festival sites, because what was left went to landfill and it all costs money to clear. It may well be the case that some policy has been brought in regarding this matter but treating the symptom and not the cause is the real issue. It’s an attitude problem.

If you spoke to the organisers of any large festival, they will probably not give you permission to be on site after shutdown due to the heavy machinery that’s charging about and the need to clear sites quickly. So you’ll need to approach them with this idea and a very comprehensive outline of exactly how you intend to not delay them but to help them. Consider the infrastucture you’ll need in order to disassemble and pack only five hundred complete and good quality tents, bags, mats, cookers, inflatable beds, quilts...etc , in just a couple of hours and while it’s raining stair-rods in a gale. Been there, done that, no thanks.

With all the best intentions, you will find that very difficult and problematic because for each unconscious casualty you find while looking for eg.tent pegs, you then have the responsibility to take them to first aid/ st john’s, who will already be totally frazzled from the hundreds of walking wounded, psychotic and ketamined hallucinators that they have been dealing with since the moment the gates first opened three days ago. That could easily take an hour per person, if you’re lucky!

I admire anyone’s effort but look at it from a business perspective and argue from that point or you’ll be treated like well-meaning but unrealistic hopefuls and not as professionals.

Best wishes,

Darryl
 
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MrEd

Life Member
Feb 18, 2010
2,148
1,053
Surrey/Sussex
www.thetimechamber.co.uk
It's not just festivals either, last year saw a huge rise of camping in the UK we camped in a field for a few days in Dorset while we visited family, on the Saturday the weather turned and over night heavy wind and rain 30 odd tents were up (some not so much) before we went to sleep only 4 of us left in the morning. At the shower block I had a guy offer me his £800 tent for £100 which made my laugh even £100 is too much for a tent that can't make it through a little storm.
Too much disposable income,

i had exactly the same thing down in dorset, eweleaze farm a few years back. 2 tents over from us a family jsut left. on their way out i asked them if they were coming back, they said no, so i asked if i could have some of the 'rubbish' they left - they gave me a weird look and drive off. So me and my sister took their wind breaks, a perfect camping table, some perfect storage containers and the tent carpet (hadnt heard of that before) - a day alter the weather broke and we had glorious sun for days.
Still using all of it to this day :)

the funnies thing though was the field turning to mud and all the flash 4x4 couldnt get out :D - some wag ordered a pizza to be delivered, the guy turned up in his old fiesta, dropped the pizza off and jsut drove out again :D was ace!

I had about a million people ask me for a tow with the defender but as it was set up as a kitchen and cook house part of our 'camp' and it wasnt easy to extricate it i declined. Almost all of them were put out that i wouldnt help them!
 
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Woody girl

Full Member
Mar 31, 2018
4,520
3,460
65
Exmoor
Just to revive this a little, in the hope that it might change a little this year.

I used to work as crew at many of the largest UK festivals and would arrive on site a week or two before kickoff and leave a week after shutdown.

The contractors given the job of clearing the site eg. Glastonbury, would, along with some random helpers and a troop of Scouts, have to check and mark every tent and sleeping bag that was left on site. I personally used to bring back several tents, bags, cooking gear....name it, with me from festivals to donate to a guy in Brighton who had taken a personal interest in helping homeless people. Make no mistake, after the Scouts etc had taken what was possible to take in the couple of hours before contractors would drive through with dozers and lorries, there were still hundred, if not thousands of fly-tipped tents and many of them weren’t cheapo Argos gear either.

With all the best will in the World, it was on many occasions a matter of life and death. I cannot count the number of drugged and unconscious casualties I found who had been abandoned in their tents and were either dangerously hypothermic, hallucinating, in a seriously deteriorated condition... you don’t want those tents... my point being that there isn’t enough time or effort put into removing fly-tipped stuff from festival sites, because what was left went to landfill and it all costs money to clear. It may well be the case that some policy has been brought in regarding this matter but treating the symptom and not the cause is the real issue. It’s an attitude problem.

If you spoke to the organisers of any large festival, they will probably not give you permission to be on site after shutdown due to the heavy machinery that’s charging about and the need to clear sites quickly. So you’ll need to approach them with this idea and a very comprehensive outline of exactly how you intend to not delay them but to help them. Consider the infrastucture you’ll need in order to disassemble and pack only five hundred complete and good quality tents, bags, mats, cookers, inflatable beds, quilts...etc , in just a couple of hours and while it’s raining stair-rods in a gale. Been there, done that, no thanks.

With all the best intentions, you will find that very difficult and problematic because for each unconscious casualty you find while looking for eg.tent pegs, you then have the responsibility to take them to first aid/ st john’s, who will already be totally frazzled from the hundreds of walking wounded, psychotic and ketamined hallucinators that they have been dealing with since the moment the gates first opened three days ago. That could easily take an hour per person, if you’re lucky!

I admire anyone’s effort but look at it from a business perspective and argue from that point or you’ll be treated like well-meaning but unrealistic hopefuls and not as professionals.

Best wishes,

Darryl

That may well be so nowadays. The last time I worked on a festival was in the early ninties so it was quite a long time ago. Things have changed a lot since then I'm sure. I do know that rather more well off people will buy stuff and leave it behind at festivals as they have partied so hard they are too exhausted to pack it all up and cart it a mile or more back to the car. I too have come across crazed druggies that are too out of their heads to realise the festival was over two days ago! Once discovered a small baby and two kids that were "left behind" at Glastonbury. It was heartbreaking. I just don't do festivals anymore. Seen too much of humanitys thoughtless hedonism to want to see anymore. Give me the woods anyday!
 
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Jan 13, 2019
291
144
54
Gallifrey
That may well be so nowadays. The last time I worked on a festival was in the early ninties so it was quite a long time ago. Things have changed a lot since then I'm sure. I do know that rather more well off people will buy stuff and leave it behind at festivals as they have partied so hard they are too exhausted to pack it all up and cart it a mile or more back to the car. I too have come across crazed druggies that are too out of their heads to realise the festival was over two days ago! Once discovered a small baby and two kids that were "left behind" at Glastonbury. It was heartbreaking. I just don't do festivals anymore. Seen too much of humanitys thoughtless hedonism to want to see anymore. Give me the woods anyday!

You and me both! It’s definitely not all festivals that this happens at but even some of the 1,500 people sized festivals don’t ‘leave no trace’. I live in hope that organisers will grow a sense of capability (yes I’ve had this chat with Michael Eavis and many others) and deal with this eg. Tents included in ticket prices and pitched in neatly marked and lit avenues, more drug testing stations, .... i’m such a dreamer.
 

gonzo_the_great

Forager
Nov 17, 2014
210
70
Poole, Dorset. UK
I brought a tesco 'festival' tent for under a tenner. just to see how bad iot was. (probably 10yrs ago?)
It only survived the weather, with the addition of a roll of plastic sheeting, and later on, being dragged under the gazebo (which also has some plastic sheeting on).
But it was a very nasty weekend. One couple came back to find their airbed floaing on on indoor (in-tent?) pond.
The tents that survived were, an oz-tent, and a khyam. And taking their cue, guess what my two main tents are now....
My Tesco tent got given away for kids to play in.

That same weekend, one of our group was going over to the muddy remains of the V festival, on a tent harvesting run, with the local Rotary club. They were given the pick of the better tents, for sending off to disaster zones. After that, they let the car-booters in to take stuff away. And you were seeing it for sale for months.
 
Jan 13, 2019
291
144
54
Gallifrey
I brought a tesco 'festival' tent for under a tenner. just to see how bad iot was. (probably 10yrs ago?)
It only survived the weather, with the addition of a roll of plastic sheeting, and later on, being dragged under the gazebo (which also has some plastic sheeting on).
But it was a very nasty weekend. One couple came back to find their airbed floaing on on indoor (in-tent?) pond.
The tents that survived were, an oz-tent, and a khyam. And taking their cue, guess what my two main tents are now....
My Tesco tent got given away for kids to play in.

That same weekend, one of our group was going over to the muddy remains of the V festival, on a tent harvesting run, with the local Rotary club. They were given the pick of the better tents, for sending off to disaster zones. After that, they let the car-booters in to take stuff away. And you were seeing it for sale for months.

With all the best intentions and from personal experience, nylon tents are a very... very dangerous thing to send as aid shelters.

I once helped a DEC (Disasters Emergency Committee) relief effort during the Earthquake which struck Pakistan some years ago. I organised the delivery (free flights) of several thousand gallons of water (in massive bowsers), as well as a few thousand tents (donations that I had had collected and stored in a warehouse... a total nightmare to keep the poles,lines and pegs together with the tents) and sleeping bags to be flown to Pakistan. None of the tents were fireproof or ‘winterised’ and people were living in them over Winter, while also lighting fires either inside the larger tents for cooking and warmth or nearby.

Fortunately before the tents were flown out, a directive was issued by the DEC and NATO that only ‘winterised’ canvas tents could be delivered to emergency camps, as woodburners and chimneys were being issued. People were dying from fire and Carbon Monoxide poisoning in nylon tents! That was a very steep learning curve.

I then had the bizarre task of redonating thousands of tents etc to charity shops. It’s not easy to instantly magic up realistic helpers who can think on their feet or follow direct instructions and the hardest part of it all, was dealing with collection, storage and redistribution.

There are ways to help and mostly everything has already been thought of and tried, so find out about existing organised work and help them. At least that’s my opinion.
 
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