r/Wellthatsucks • u/mattloaf666 • 9h ago

Reading festival 2026

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u/FreedomBread 8h ago

Concerts in general are like this.

I typically stay until the crowd thins a bit at concerts I go to - the volume of trash they literally shovel into rolling dumpsters is staggering. At a Radiohead show they were paying 5p for each empty plastic cup, you just had to turn it in. Cash money. I gathered up a bunch and made 20 pounds just walking around - people even added to my cup stack. I bought free merchandise from other people's trash cups. And at the end of the night, I saw countless cups on the ground, both thinking what a waste it was as they'd never be recycled, and all that cash was just laying on the ground.

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u/SkankySandwich 8h ago

I volunteer at festivals. A lot now charge £2 for a cup. You bring it back and refill or you turn it in and get your deposit back.

I have a campervan full of the bloody things, but quite honestly, it's easy to make £50 in about 5 minutes at the end of the last night.

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u/FreedomBread 4h ago

Unfortunately I've not seen this at US things, but I didn't go to this festival so maybe they had something like this set up.

The UK was doing this back in 2008, which to me, was quite impressive.