r/Wellthatsucks • u/mattloaf666 • 9h ago

Reading festival 2026

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12.6k Upvotes

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402

u/Son-of-Prophet 8h ago

If you could afford to just throw away a tent like that after one or two nights use, you live a life of privilege

222

u/fidgeter 8h ago

People struggling to get by aren’t going to these festivals and setting up tents. They can’t afford it.

42

u/Qbite 8h ago

Used tents can be very cheap, even free. Most people look at a smelly, wet, muddy (and cheap) tent the morning of leaving a festival like this and just say fuck it.

61

u/skatemoose 8h ago

Take it down and throw in a damn bin than, lazy bellends leaving it there.

3

u/FUBARded 2h ago

Never in my life have I looked at something I bought/received that I really didn't want to have to clean, and instead chose to just leave it there.

I either suck it up and take it home (even if I could easily afford to replace it) to avoid creating needless waste, or do the bare minimum of binning it appropriately.

I understand this person was probably just explaining the logic rather than defending it, but it's infuriating that so many people think like this. Fly tipping/littering is honestly one of the worst things people routinely do that destroys communities and it makes my fucking blood boil how little people care.

1

u/arup02 1h ago

I'm poor, the thought of throwing a tent away is madness to me. People really live in different worlds.

2

u/clintstorres 6h ago

Seriously. If you don’t care about it. Smash it down like Hulk and walk it over to the dumpster.

2

u/77skull 5h ago

I was at Leeds fest this year and i can tell you there are no where near enough bins for the amount of tents that get left behind. For the record i took my tent home nor do i think people are right in leaving theirs behind, but throwing it in a bin at the festival isn’t an option

1

u/nalaloveslumpy 4h ago

The venue would need to put out commercial dumpsters to make that work. Which is what they do when the cleanup crew comes through after the festival.

1

u/Mattman254 2h ago

This was unfortunately my solution for a festival I want to this year. Got a final clearance tent for £7, found out it was way too small. Instead of carrying it back just to bin it, I packed it up and put it in the waste area with all my rubbish. No way was I going to leave it for some volunteer to do for me though.

5

u/mtnbikerburittoeater 8h ago

Yeah? That doesnt mean people who are struggling are going to festivals. It's super expensive

0

u/MadManMax55 6h ago

Way more expensive than it used to be even 10 years ago, but still not prohibitively expensive. A working class person can save throughout the year and go to a big festival like Reading as their annual vacation. Plus you can volunteer to work the festival and get in free (though the volunteers are the ones picking up tents, not trashing them).

1

u/mtnbikerburittoeater 6h ago

Like 80% or more of the world cannot afford a weekend festival and probably nearly as many cant take time off to work for free. A lot of people need to save up to just like, ya know, feed their family, buy their kid a xmas present, or get a medical procedure. Get a clue, most people dont take a yearly vacation.

2

u/MadManMax55 5h ago

Yeah no shit the global poor aren't going to go to a western pop music festival. That's not exactly an insightful observation.

Most working class people in the developed world have some amount of vacation/sick days and at least a small amount of savings. That's enough to afford a budget airline flight and a general admission ticket (plus food and other stuff). Also the demographic for music festivals skews younger, so childcare costs aren't typically an issue.

Obviously unexpected expenses could eat into those savings, but that would be true regardless of what "luxury" we were talking about. You're not going to say that TVs are only for rich people because a family that had a medical emergency can't afford a new one right now.

0

u/mtnbikerburittoeater 5h ago

Dude, 80% of people in America are living paycheck to paycheck. I guarantee there are very few, if any people at this festival who saved for an entjte year just to go to a trashy ass festival in fucking reading. Like what is your actual argument? This back and forth started because you said tents are cheap as a reason why stuggling people can afford a festival.

1

u/MadManMax55 5h ago

...You realize that Reading is in the UK, right? It's mostly Brits and other Europeans there. Just like Americans mostly go to festivals in America.

I've been to plenty of camping fests big and small in the US (and one in Europe). Some when I was pretty darn broke. People at these festivals are all across the spectrum in terms of demographics and socioeconomic status. Sure it leans younger and wealthier (especially post-COVID), but they're far from exclusive.

Maybe if you bothered to look into the specifics of what you're talking about instead of going on broad political rants you'd know that.

1

u/mtnbikerburittoeater 5h ago

I don't know what else to tell you, it being 325 euros just for tickets and camping makes it exclusive without factoring in food and travel. I used the US as an example of a 1st world country where most people still can't afford that and I don't know what the stats are for UK. This isn't a broad political rant, this was you implying that cheap tents make it affordable for struggling people to go to a festival, and then you doubling down that basically anyone can afford to go if only they just saved up for a whole year! Where is my political stance? LOL. I know the crowds are younger, but there's still a lot of adults at festivals who have kids. I'm 40 and know a lot of people who still do festivals at my age. Plus, that's just one example of things people might have to spend their money on before going to a festival.

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u/NoForever3645 7h ago

Those people don’t deserve to go to festivals then if they’re going to show zero personal responsibility for cleaning up after themselves.

1

u/eatmeouttobrianeno 7h ago

I have 2 very nice tents

They both were scavenged from festival sites, during cleanup. I've had to do a few repairs ,but they are still actively nicer than anything I could reasonably afford.

1

u/scotte416 6h ago

I've been to many multi day festivals and the majority take their tents, this must be a new thing.

1

u/Ressy02 5h ago

Everything can be very cheap if you are someone who can afford to go to festivals

1

u/Turbulent_Safety3816 5h ago

I am 100% sure his point is that even ticket and travel alone is £500, then you add on consumables and you are easily looking at 700-800 even if you are doing it on the cheap. Most will likely be spending well over 1k all in.

1

u/OctavianBlue 1h ago

Also you often find there is a big walk from the camping to the car park, I found many people who did pack theirs up would dump it on the way to the car as it became too much hassle to carry.