Wacken in Germany was also like this. My last time was in 2010 and in the camp site after the last day the fire brigade were just driving from one campsite to the other putting out tent fires. People were stacking up hundreds of tents into a pile and setting them alight. The whole area stunk of melted plastic, it was horrid. I was also there in 2005 and 2007, and it wasn't quite as bad, but still a mess after the last day.
Needless to say I haven't been back to Wacken since, and I instead go to smaller festivals.
Incredibly difficult to enforce I think. Without mass surveillance, how will they know who each tent belongs to? And even if they have video of them abandoning their tent, they then need to ID them and track them down. Then there's the issue of international guests, which make up a huge percentage of these bigger festivals.
In theory I would love it to be punished, but I have no idea how to make that work.
The best "solution" I've encountering at most festivals in Germany is to charge a "trash deposit" with the ticket, and refund it if you brought a full trash bag to a trash point.
Deichbrand was clean AF this year after people left
They do this at Summer Breeze and Party San, and last time I went to Metaldays in Tolmin (in 2019 I think?) they also did this. It definitely helps to a degree, but it has to be enforced and the deposit has to be meaningful.
For example, in Metaldays the deposit was only €5 and they accepted the deposit bags when a single empty can of beer was in them. That festival was moderately clean, but I don't think that the deposit bag had anything to do with that as it was just as clean before they introduced it.
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u/Demoliri 7h ago
Wacken in Germany was also like this. My last time was in 2010 and in the camp site after the last day the fire brigade were just driving from one campsite to the other putting out tent fires. People were stacking up hundreds of tents into a pile and setting them alight. The whole area stunk of melted plastic, it was horrid. I was also there in 2005 and 2007, and it wasn't quite as bad, but still a mess after the last day.
Needless to say I haven't been back to Wacken since, and I instead go to smaller festivals.