{"id":406890,"date":"2026-01-11T20:26:26","date_gmt":"2026-01-11T20:26:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/406890\/"},"modified":"2026-01-11T20:26:26","modified_gmt":"2026-01-11T20:26:26","slug":"summer-festival-goers-continue-to-abandon-truckloads-of-camping-gear","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/406890\/","title":{"rendered":"Summer festival-goers continue to abandon truckloads of camping gear"},"content":{"rendered":"

When car trouble left Larissa Stubbings stranded at a music festival more than 1,000 kilometres from home, she had no trouble finding somewhere to sleep for the night.<\/p>\n

On New Year’s Day, \u00a0music fans left the campsite at Victoria’s Beyond The Valley event littered with abandoned tents and camping equipment.<\/p>\n

\"a<\/p>\n

Larissa Stubbings collected abandoned camping gear while she was stranded at Beyond The Valley. (Supplied)<\/p>\n

“We were able to gather literally everything we needed; new tents, blow-up mattresses, water and so much unopened food,” Ms Stubbings said.<\/p>\n

“It was really surreal, it felt like we were shopping because there was so much left behind.”\"food,<\/p>\n

Entire campsites were left behind at New Year’s Eve festivals. (Supplied: Beth Green)<\/p>\n

When the 20-year-old shared her experience on social media, the consensus among commenters was that the volume of trash was nothing unusual.<\/p>\n

“I was so shocked to see how many people left their belongings, but it was even more shocking that it was normal for everyone online,” she said.<\/p>\n

“Everyone is really tired after a multi-day festival, but I didn’t think people were that lazy or careless.”<\/p>\n

Potential solutions<\/p>\n

Green Music Australia chief executive Berish Bilander said despite festival waste being a long-standing and contentious issue, more work was needed to regulate campsites at music festivals.<\/p>\n

\"a<\/p>\n

Berish Bilander says festival-goers need to keep each other accountable when it comes to waste. (Supplied)<\/p>\n

“More than half of the waste that comes out of these events is from the campsites,” he said.<\/p>\n

“Thousands of pieces of very cheap camping gear come through the gates only to end up in the trash a day later.<\/p>\n

“An initiative we’ve seen really work is the pre-made tent villages, so patrons don’t have to bring their own camping gear.”<\/p>\n

\"scattered<\/p>\n

Campsites are responsible for more than half the rubbish accumulated at music festivals. (Supplied: Beth Green)<\/p>\n

Mr Bilander said the biggest hurdle was creating a cultural shift among festival-goers.<\/p>\n

“It’s all about the ethics of the people at the event; if everyone is holding each other accountable, they’ll leave the place cleaner than they found it,” he said.<\/p>\n

“We’ve seen that work when a festival has that energy, and there’s a real commitment to either borrow or not bring low-cost camping gear.”<\/p>\n

\"piles<\/p>\n

Abandoned camping gear at this year’s Lost Paradise music festival. (Supplied: Beth Green)<\/p>\n

‘Cultural shift’ needed<\/p>\n

Research by Green Music Australia has found one in every three tents taken to a music festival is left behind.<\/p>\n

\"piles<\/p>\n

Statistics show that one in three tents entering a music festival will be left behind. (Supplied: Beth Green)<\/p>\n

That statistic rings true for Joshua Davies from B-Alternative, who operated at this year’s Lost Paradise event on the NSW Central Coast.<\/p>\n

“It really is a growing culture of consumerism, buying something extremely cheap knowing you’ll only use it once,” he said.<\/p>\n

“But it’s nothing new \u2014 we’ve seen it for decades, but cheap products are easier than ever to obtain.”<\/p>\n

\"a<\/p>\n

Joshua Davies has been dropping off the forgotten festival camping gear to local rough sleepers and charities. (ABC Central Coast: Shauna Foley)<\/p>\n

Social enterprise B-Alternative hosted a repair facility at Lost Paradise, where patrons could have problems with tents and other camping equipment fixed onsite.<\/p>\n

Mr Davies said the space helped start conversations with festival-goers about their responsibility to “leave no trace”.<\/p>\n

\"the<\/p>\n

Dozens of discarded tents and other camping gear were donated to local rough sleepers. (Supplied: Joshua Davies)<\/p>\n

“It’s a chain reaction,” he said.<\/p>\n

“If we can influence one person, they’ll take that mindfulness with them and carry it on.”<\/p>\n

After the event, Mr Davies and his team used several removalist trucks to deliver abandoned camping gear to charities, op shops and rough sleepers in the area.<\/p>\n

“Until we see that cultural shift, we’ll continue to see all this mountain of perfectly usable camping equipment go into landfill,” he said.<\/p>\n

“We were fortunate to have the right stakeholders in place this time to salvage what was left behind, though that’s not always the case.<\/p>\n

“But [festival organisers] need to be frank with patrons and show them the aftermath of their fun.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When car trouble left Larissa Stubbings stranded at a music festival more than 1,000 kilometres from home, she…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":406891,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[215585,64,63,215584,215582,215579,215583,134,215581,215580,215578,67003],"class_list":["post-406890","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-abandoned-tents","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-b-alternative","tag-barunah-plains","tag-beyond-the-valley","tag-camping-equipment","tag-entertainment","tag-festival-waste","tag-green-music-australia","tag-lost-paradise","tag-music-festivals"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/406890","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=406890"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/406890\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/406891"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=406890"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=406890"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=406890"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}