The new normal: leaving your tent and belongings behind at a rock festival

Here is a video made at the Glastonbury festival after the public had left. 4-5 day rock festivals aren’t really my thing, and I had no idea that so many people just left their stuff behind: brand new tents worth hundreds of dollars, air mattresses, sleeping bags, cooking equipment, chairs, clothes, and trash everywhere.

So this is the new normal? Is this from the millennial generation we hear so much about lately.

I read an article where a guy was venting about this video and expressing his disgust about the growing lack of respect in Western society. A mother replied with the following comment:

“Maybe something to do with the ticket price being so high or the bad state of the camp grounds? I buy tents for my sons at second hand shops, and they are free to leave them behind. Saves space in the garage.”

Well, that certainly clears things up for me. These kids are actually being taught this behaviour. Mommy even goes out shopping for her boys.

Maybe if they re-use their tents and other belongings, they will have more cash left over for festival tickets? Just a thought...

And maybe someone should bulldoze all that stuff right into her garage.



soulwaxer

Ah so millennial of them giving back to nature good Ole environmentally friendly gear o plastics.

In the 90s we used to litter the floors of raves with fliers, drugbags, & glowsticks, but I didn't see people leaving behind valuables like this.

It's not a new thing. You saw it even back in the nineties in some places.

The problem isn't millennials, it's yuppies/trendies. People with more money then brains. They have been the bane of cool events and parties for ages.

The story is always the same. People start a party, rave or event. It happens more then once and some celebrity or rich yuppie decides it's the cool place to be. Then they descend like locusts and suck all the cool out of it. Usually rules, regulations and high ticket fees come with them. The festival, party or event becomes a suck fest and the original people start moving on looking for something cool and genuine.

Nice try, trying to turn it into a millennial thing though.

a reply to: prisoneronashipoffools

I never saw that in the nineties, when I went to rock festivals every summer, nothing even close to it.

And I'm not saying the millennials are at fault. I think I made it clear that I blame their parents (the yuppies and the trendies).

soulwaxer

I don't recall Woodstock 2009 looking like a vacant tent city after the fact. Pretty much any pre-mellianals festival. Garbage everywhere, sure. Personal property, not so much

It's mellianals, it's the same group of people who love democracy until the vote doesn't their way. Love tolarence until you disagree with them. Materials and values are disposable to them.

I would be taking a few of those home and some to sell. It just boils down to someone being way too lazy to take their gear home and clean it or they just have way too much disposable income for their mental capacity. After camping , especially at the coast we always brought our gear back and hosed it down and cleaned it up and sat it out in the sun to dry before stowing for the next trip. I have the same 2 tents I have had for about 20 years now. That is just wasteful and lazy in my eyes.

Millennial this, millennial that, why don't you blame UK culture instead of baiting an entire generation?

Do as I say, not as I do.

a reply to: soulwaxer

I live near a festival site here in Australia, man the mess those kids leave is incredible, they literally buy tents, mattresses, clothes, shoes/gumboots to to throw away, some 36 thousand will arrive in the next couple of weeks and do it all again.....this is from last year..

originally posted by: soulwaxer
so many people just left their stuff behind: brand new tents worth hundreds of dollars, air mattresses, sleeping bags, cooking equipment, chairs, clothes,

Probably too drugged up to find where they had set up camp

Those were some expensive tents. My guess, most of those tents were purchased together with friends but after its use there was no way to divide the tent up so they just left it. What a shame what kids have become these days. Disposable society.

I think a lot of them are used for disaster relief - i know a local festival that has signs up stating any tents/mattresses etc that are left will be given to aid agencies and i had heard Glasto was the same but don't know for sure.

So not lazy but caring perhaps

a reply to: johnb

Na, it's just bloody laziness.
www.theguardian.com...

a reply to: TheFlyOnTheWall

It is possible they flew in and purchased their gear then did not want to repack and pay to put them on the plane home.

Either way, very wasteful and not cool.

a reply to: soulwaxer

At first I misread your title thinking that they left their campsite to go into the festival, and that was the new normal. I was thinking, how else would they enjoy the show, from their campsite the entire time?

Ha ha!!! In any case, maybe these people knew they bought crappy Chinese made camping gear and would fall apart on them in a matter of days and decided they should spend their money on quality gear for next year.
Or, they're just lazy idiots coming down off a week long drug binge that rendered them too brain dead to make a rational decision. Oh, and mommy paid for those drugs too.

What a shame....The video said they even had charity drop-off areas on sight...hope these things go to the homeless or are put to good use in some way. We Love our old tent, lot's of good memories ....it would be like leaving behind a family member !

It appears to be nothing new from Wood Stock in 1994 Wood Stock Legacy memories garbage

Hundreds of tents appeared to have been left behind, along with sleeping bags, blankets, shirts, folding chairs and innumerable shoes abandoned in the mud.

Glastonbury how green is going to the festival

By the 1990s the field of Avalon was strewn with abandoned tents, plastic bottles and rusting cans. A cow died from swallowing a tent peg

Having gone to one big festival in my life, the only way I'd ever go to another is in an rv.

2013 T in the park, some dirty bastard had a # in my mates tent, who does these sort of things.?

I would never go to a big festival again. Smaller festivals can be just as much fun. The Arseholes are few and far between.

As for the Tents left behind. It's a common thing at all big festivals. Throw away society.

a reply to: MrSpad

How many people were at Woodstock compared to this?