A video of the campsite at Reading Festival shows hundreds of tents surrounded by litter that appear to have been abandoned by ticketholders.

Alongside the excitement and energy of the annual festival, a new, less positive trend has emerged at Little John’s Farm in recent years – the litter-strewn, detritus-flooded aftermath of the five-day event, widely condemned after its extent was captured in drone footage in August 2023.

(Image: X)

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Despite organisers urging attendees not to use single-use plastics and to take their tents home with them, footage of the campsite at this year’s festival shows that the problem is far from resolution.

An X user called Michael uploaded the video to the social media platform this morning (August 26), the final day of the event, which kicked off on Wednesday, August 21.

He described the scene before him – which showed broken tents, turned-over fold-up chairs and plastic bags and bottles scattered over the site – as “the worst I’ve ever seen at the end of a festival”.

Adding: “You can tell (it’s) mostly attended by under-25s.”

Festivalgoer Catherine Grey, 21, told the Chronicle this morning that while she had enjoyed this year’s event more than its predecessor, she thought the campsite had been left in a “dreadful” state.

She said: “Loads of stuff has been left. It’s horrible.”