New Shropshire business hopes to encourage festival-goers to take their tents with them
It is a problem that leaves music festival staff with a headache every year – just what should be done with thousands of tents left discarded where they stand? About 20,000 tents are abandoned at Glastonbury Festival each year.
And at the V Festival on the Shropshire border, about 5,000 tents are donated to International Aid Trust charity for use anywhere in the world.
Now one Shropshire firm is setting up My Festival Tent, a business that aims to persuade people to pick up their tent and take it with them.
According to Market Drayton businessman Nick Cooper, at least 72,000 tents were left behind after festivals across the UK.
Now he hopes to set up a system where festival goers will be issued a tent as they arrive and offered an incentive in the form of a deposit to ensure it is cleared from the site.
My Festival Tent, which will be based on Cheshire Street in Market Drayton, has been launched by Mr Cooper and his colleagues Mark Whittle, Phil Riley and Justin Churchill.
Mr Cooper said: "I wanted to set up a business which would help tackle that problem."
He said festival goers would buy their tents from My Festival Tent.
A team from the company will be at the camping ground on the morning of the chosen festival with the tents. After the event has finished if the tent is taken home or returned to the company, the customer will be given £10 and entered into a prize draw.
Mr Cooper added: "The tents will be priced at £36 for a spacious three man tent.
"If the customer takes the tent home with them at the end or returns it to us they will have £10 back in their account and entered into a prize draw with lots of prizes on offer including music tickets, DVDs and TVs.
"We can also deliver the tent home after and you will still get the money and entry into the prize draw.
"We hope this will be an incentive to start to tackle the problem. We are also introducing sleeping bag and mattress packs and camp chairs – as a lot of people leave these behind as well.
"We could do all of them if needed."
The firm is starting at a limited number of festivals this year as a trial and eventually hopes to expand to all the big events including Glastonbury and the V Festival at Weston Park.
Thousands of abandoned tents litter the grounds of Weston Park each year, along with discarded sleeping bags, camping chairs and clothes. A team of 500 volunteers is used to clear the site.
Mr Cooper said: "This year we hope to be at three festivals and then each year go to more and hopefully abroad."
The business will be based at a currently dilapidated building at the start of Cheshire Street.
"We needed somewhere as a base with an office and storage space," Mr Cooper added.
"Mark got in touch with Market Drayton councillor Roger Hughes who said the council could provide a grant for the renovation work of the building.
"The building is about to fall down. The roof needs replacing and the side of the building so it will take some work - we could not have done it without the help of the council so are very grateful.
"We hope to be up and running by the end of April or start of May."
