r/Wellthatsucks • u/mattloaf666 • 9h ago

Reading festival 2026

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12.6k Upvotes

94% Upvoted

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3.3k

u/crowhouse 8h ago

Why do so many people abandon tents?

46

u/simsyboy 8h ago

Because they're scum. And there are a very large majority of scumbags who go to reading festival.

3

u/JaysonTatumPullUp 8h ago

This happens at every festival

5

u/simsyboy 8h ago

By scumbags.

2

u/Actual-Wave-1959 7h ago

It doesn't 

2

u/SousVideDiaper 7h ago

Not really, I've been to several that had clean grounds afterwards, despite people partying hard

I think there's a possible connection between the type of music and the type of people who attend. By and large, country music festival attendees seem to be the worst offenders of leaving trash

2

u/greenvahn 7h ago

Not really. There a few festivals where it happens but this is not the normal behaviour at "every" festival.

1

u/my72dart 2h ago

This was every festival I worked at in the Northwest a decade ago. The year cream fields flooded was the worse but not really the fault of the festival goers. But they abandoned everything some tents were under water all were full of mud. Those that could left early some were stuck with nothing to do but wait for their training or ride or whatever.

-60

u/temporarilydestroyed 8h ago

No they’re not it’s not a big deal.

18

u/simsyboy 8h ago

It's a very big deal. Unless you're an awful scumbag.

42

u/S3erverMonkey 8h ago

Buddy leaving behind that much trash is indeed a big deal.

-33

u/ShabbatShalom666 8h ago

It's really not a big deal, there's a massive clean up after the festival. If nobody left tents behind there would be no clean up crew, no one does that job for minimum wage, they do it to find cool shit in the tents and even the tent itself.

19

u/simsyboy 8h ago

Yeah, this is giving 'my dad says it gives people jobs'. Grow up.

-23

u/ShabbatShalom666 8h ago

Woah my dad's alive? It's a miracle!

How about you grow up and read a simple comment? It's really not that hard.

5

u/simsyboy 7h ago

No, sorry I should have clarified, I spoke to him at a seance last night and he said people should take their crap with them after a festival.

I wasn't talking about your dad, but the dad on a famous 1980s British TV ad.

And I read your post clearly. To be serious, yes I know people clear them up and as someone who was a clear up volunteer at Glastonbury many years ago, it was a nice way to get free entry. However, it doesn't make it right. Festivals spend 1000s and 1000s sorting this stuff out and it just gives people a sense that it's OK to do, when it should be bare minimum to clear up when you've been somewhere!

-2

u/ShabbatShalom666 7h ago

Obviously it's not right, but the argument is that it's not a big deal, which it isn't. I worked clean up at Leeds fest like 10 years ago when I was a broke student, saw stuff that scarred me in those tents, but I found lots of cool shit ( like a ps vita that I still have today). Had the tents not been there I'd have just been cleaning up pissy cups.

2

u/simsyboy 7h ago

The majority of the 250,000 tents left at UK festivals end up in landfill. That's all people need to know.

1

u/ShabbatShalom666 7h ago

As opposed to ending up in the landfill near the owners home? That's a different issue.

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20

u/NeverBeenStung 8h ago edited 6h ago

Holy fuck just clean up after yourself. Normalizing leaving this much garbage is wild

-24

u/ShabbatShalom666 8h ago

If you read my last comment, it's not a big deal in this situation

3

u/NeverBeenStung 6h ago

It’s such a low bar of human decency to clean up after yourself.

1

u/ShabbatShalom666 6h ago

Yep I agree in most situations! Not this one though.

1

u/ofWildPlaces 6h ago

It is a big deal. Pick up your shit.

0

u/ShabbatShalom666 6h ago

Thanks for your insightful comments, you've really changed my perspective!

7

u/Asheejeekar 8h ago

So by that logic it’s ok to throw trash in the street? It’s employing someone so why not

1

u/ShabbatShalom666 8h ago

Maybe if you read past the first line of my comment you would have had your answer?

2

u/Coral2Reef 8h ago

Username checks out.

0

u/ShabbatShalom666 8h ago

I'm not Jewish, but what are you implying? This comment has really brought the basement dwellers out!

2

u/ofWildPlaces 6h ago

Imagine posting this thinking you are right in any way

1

u/ShabbatShalom666 6h ago

You're*, comment dismissed.

2

u/ofWildPlaces 6h ago

I didn't misspel anything

1

u/ShabbatShalom666 6h ago

You're right, you didn't misspell anything.

-19

u/West-Replacement2959 8h ago

Do you think it's all just left there to rot and every music festival site becomes a landfill afterwards? This is all accounted for by the organisers and cleaned up.

15

u/S3erverMonkey 8h ago edited 8h ago

I'm saying that they shouldn't have to do this. The festival goers need to be responsible for themselves. You don't go camping and leave all your trash behind. This is still camping. Were you raised in a barn?

-6

u/West-Replacement2959 8h ago

No but I would consider it if I knew there was someone coming specifically to clean up after me and there was no difference between me taking it home and binning it vs leaving it there and it getting binned.

2

u/nottherealneal 8h ago

Found the scum

6

u/stink3rb3lle 8h ago

It's shockingly disgusting to Americans. I personally believe this stuff isn't some referendum on permanent character, but it's a nasty side of the culture, and it is a big deal.

I would recommend trying to adopt the campsite rule to replace whatever norms make you think this is okay. Leave the place better than you found it.

10

u/Natthiel 8h ago

It's shockingly disgusting to the people of Reading and the rest of the UK too, not sure what Americans have to do with it

0

u/stink3rb3lle 8h ago

Well, we're waking up right now to be commenting on reddit, and we don't leave festival campsites anywhere near this bad.