Despite what you may think about little old East Anglia, we’re not as dull as you may think. Just last weekend more than 40,000 people attended one of the region’s biggest festivals, Sundown. What was on those 40,000 festival goer’s minds? Music, mates, camping, alcohol etc etc. What they probably weren’t thinking is where they put their litter. Here at WT Skips, we won the contracts to provide the skips to Sundown Festival last weekend and for Reload Festival this coming weekend.
The Waste Produced by Festivals
Along with the sound and light pollution emitted by festivals, there are often stories of other – more serious – pollution being caused by the events. In 2014, Glastonbury festival admitted to breaching environmental laws when human waste leaked into a nearby river and left around 40 fish dead. Another problem is abandoned tents. Big festivals attract hundreds of thousands of people. With many choosing to sleep overnight there are always going to be some who don’t feel like carrying the canvas home. Event organisers encourage people to take their tents home but often people choose not to. This problem required thousands of people to volunteer to collect the tents and other rubbish left behind by those happy campers. The clear up cost at Glastonbury is estimated to be around £780,000.
Norfolk’s Festival Past
East Anglia is by no means new to the festival scene. In fact, Norwich hosts one of the UK’s oldest surviving festivals, the Norfolk and Norwich Festival. The event still attracts over 75,000 people in its duration. The festival started in 1772 as a fundraising event for the then newly built Norfolk and Norwich hospital. The festival didn’t become annual, however, until 1988 and in the thirty years since then the festival has grown and established itself as one of the UK’s largest multi-art form festivals.
The Norfolk and Norwich Festival is considered one of the big four international arts festivals in the UK. The festival, which is held annually during May, transforms the whole city with music events, art, food and drink, circus, dance and even more.
Our Skips for Sundown and the Reload Festival
We extended our waste disposal facilities to the Norfolk Showground for Sundown 2017 last weekend and for Reload festival this upcoming weekend. Catering for the litter left by thousands of people is not an easy task, but the size and quality of our skips definitely helped the organisers deal with the waste left in the wake of the festivals.
Our skips are perfect for a wide range of jobs. For any questions or advice call our experienced team on 01493 668118 or email us on info@wtskiphire.co.uk. You can book one of our skips online here.
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