I was a volunteer in the campsite at Reading festival in 2008 and 2009 with a friend. It was exactly like this, a destitute wasteland of inexplicable tent abandonment. As part of the clean up, we went around with a wheel barrow collecting unopened cans of beer, each tent seemed to be a treasure trove for us as 18 year olds. It was all fun and games until he found a cooler box in a tent. Opened it up and inside was a singular, well preserved, human turd.
I was there in 09 and it was horrific. The Saturday night was pure chaos. I remember the field next to mine had flames 15-20ft high from a bonfire made of tents but the fire marshal decided to come to my tent instead and extinguish a fire I had made in a bean can...
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.
You pay for your festival ticket. If you select camping, a 500 [currency] hold is put on your credit card. Each tent gets an RFID tag on arrival where your tickets are checked. They cost next to nothing. Your tent is registered upon entry. If your tent is not registered again when you leave, the 500 [currency] is deducted from your account.
Alternatively, you could do spot checks of cars while leaving the area. Someone has a three day pass with camping and leaves with a nearly empty car without a tent? Boom, 500 [currency] fine for you. Yes, you really DID agree to these terms and conditions while purchasing your tickets. Yes of course you may go back and clean up your (any) campsite and have your fine wiped.
Two ways, just from the top of my head. Definitely not perfect. I bet there would be others and possibly even better ones. People would only need to care.
Haha guess you don't know the reprobates at Leeds/Reading; you'll have some psychos going round cutting out or otherwise destroying everyone's RFID tags. Then they'll still leave their tent and steal someone else's once it's taken down for them.
Ah, well, those over-engineered ultra-technical solutions. Sounds good, while you are sitting comfortably in your chair at home, but completely impractical. To give you an example: I was at Rock im Park in Nuremberg this year. And to buy anything, you had to wear an RFID chip. I didn't need camping or merchandise - just a drink and something to eat. Well, you needed to register with all details, address, bank account, create an account. Transfer money to your festival account. Tons of data protection agreements. After the festival you waited for over two weeks, until they transfered back the money to your bank. For a coke. And a burger. This is the price of RFID+money. You will scare a lot of people who never intended littering.
I provided a second, way less technical solution. I am also not a festival organizer. I am just saying, there are methods out there. They each have their shortcomings, I am aware. But if this is the result of doing nothing, then literally anything is better than this. Even not having a festival at all would be preferrable to this. Keep in mind that whatever you do can always be combined with a "I'm sorry we had to do this, but you left us no choice" campaign. Do that for ten years and maybe measures can be dialled back again.
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u/Jackariasd 10h ago
I was a volunteer in the campsite at Reading festival in 2008 and 2009 with a friend. It was exactly like this, a destitute wasteland of inexplicable tent abandonment. As part of the clean up, we went around with a wheel barrow collecting unopened cans of beer, each tent seemed to be a treasure trove for us as 18 year olds. It was all fun and games until he found a cooler box in a tent. Opened it up and inside was a singular, well preserved, human turd.