Can someone please explain?

Hmm, seems there is a clash of opinions on this. I didn't actually make the original Sunrise this year (it was canceled before I left home) but I know what we and the organisers are like, and I doubt there would be rubbish left behind. A contract of some sort would have been drawn up if nothing else ensuring that Sunrise would remove all rubbish.

Chemical toxins in the mud? As is toxic waste or illegal fertilizer?

If you go down to the fields today, you're in for a big surprise.
If you go down to the fields today, you'd better not be barefoot.

... erm does that explain the glow I had after I came back from sunrise?

very possibly Laughing

by the way we never found rubys glasses, so if anyone picked up a pair of black metal childrens glasses they may be hers!

festivalchooks wrote (View Post): › i am totally confused by libertad's post! Laughing

I'm confused when he posts too coz I think the toxicity in the mud has made him invisible Shocked

I agree with the alleged gross exaggeration/hidden agenda bits but I was just polite to mention it myself Razz

CPx

We found some black rimmed glasses and i think we were camped just up the hill from you guys. They were in our camp and got sat on by the person who found them i am afraid (which is how they got found) so they were a little bent but definately weren't broken. We didn't know who's they were so handed them to the steward people down by the entrance at North parking. Hope you get them back ok

Posted: Thu Aug 14, 2008 5:35 pm Post subject: Re: Can someone please explain?

zenecho wrote (View Post): › I was in the campervan field so maybe have just missed it but I was completed non plussed by the things people left behind.... why?

There were tents.. and not just tents that were up but tents that were packed up and just left..... sleeping bags in perfect condition ..maybe just needed a wash... clothes.. bottles of achohol (WTF?) those sun shade things whos name I can never remember allways think its pagoda but its not ..ok a lot were trashed but loads were ok....

... can someone please explain the mind set of just leaving such stuff, maybe its my age but to just leave a £100 tent WTF!!!

I've just received an email in which Big Chill people say:

'We're very sorry to say that our Leave No Trace campaign at the festival this year was a big disappointment and saddening for all of us. Unfortunately, it would seem that our usually efficient litter picking teams were simply having far too good a time and failed to turn up for work on Sunday morning, by which the site was looking the worse for wear. This was heartbreaking for us and we will be taking steps to ensure that this is not repeated at next year's festival'.

Could explain some of the mess then I suppose, but still doesn't let those responsible for the mess in the first place off the hook does it?

CP x

reddot wrote (View Post): › I saw these people walking along with their sofa on one of the hired trolleys
I from that moment knew that this would be left on site
New 3 piece deliverd how do you get rid of the old one dump it in some body else garden

Was it a red sofa by any chance??

If so that has been recycled by festival weather and is currently back in my spare room after its trip to bloom. We should find an address for the ex owners and keep sending them piccies of it at festivals!!

TBH there is NO excuse what so ever for not clearing up after yourself. All it takes is putting your rubbish in one bag and recycling in another as you go along and either taking to one of the bin points (if they have them) or leaving it neatly where you were camped. do it as you go along and have a final sweep of where you were camped and leave the field clean and tidy.

I can't understand how you can't do this. Its not hard and makes the world a better place.

Big chill quote ' it would seem that our usually efficient litter picking teams were simply having far too good a time and failed to turn up for work on Sunday morning, '.

Sunday? Bollocks does spring to mind as teh litter was terrible in teh main BIgChill arena area from saturday morning onwards.......

To be fair though all teh festivals I have been to have had the same problem, sunrise1, teh bigchill and bloom, maybe its just been teh shit weather...

... I do remember at Bloom, Joyous shouting "hey pick that up" when I dropped my rollup on the grass outside teh FW camp, not that I was littering I was just muntered and dropped it by mistake, I did find it (it was still lit), smoked it and then put it in the rubbish bag when I finished it.... Smile

Posted: Fri Aug 15, 2008 10:35 pm Post subject: Re: Can someone please explain?

Some interesting comments about Big Chill on here:

CLICK ON BIG CHILL FESTIVAL 2008 AND READ TORT'S COMMENTS RE SECURITY AND TOILETS

Posted: Mon Aug 18, 2008 11:34 am Post subject: Re: Can someone please explain?

Well, just got back from Beautiful Days, and there was not too much litter and rubbish there, even after the weather. Maybe it was all underneath the mud Rolling Eyes

Saying that, the campsite was a bit of a bombsite, but none more than I'm used to I suppose. Certainly when litter is covered in mud, people will feel less likely to pick it up Sad

Posted: Tue Aug 19, 2008 10:28 pm Post subject: Re: Can someone please explain?

CyberPurple wrote (View Post): › Just found the post from Maker Green Team people here:

http://festivalweather.com/forum/maker-green-team-sunrise-celebration-2008-bearley-farm-vt7108.html?highlight=maker+green

So if they stayed to help tidy up, how come there was so much rubbish left? It says the Sunrise crew and the farmer worked together, or am I not understanding something here?

CP x

No word from 'Becky of Bearley' yet then? I'm surprised, especially as you have your very own thread now Wink

Posted: Sat Aug 23, 2008 9:01 pm Post subject: Re: Can someone please explain?

Hi all,

Just back from my ramblings and happened to notice the Becky at Bearley thing and thought I'd investigate. It seems a bit rude to write on here before speaking to Becky personally, but will do her that honour tomorrow once I can find some space from my children.

Whilst I agree that Becky's comment is an exagerration (we dont generate anything near 200 tonnes of waste at a full festival, let alone a cancelled one and if there was anything near this weight it would be down entirely to the mud stuck to everything) she is right to point out that Sunrise, for all its aspirations, is hardly waste-free and like every sizeable event produces a lot of surplus junk - the most of it, I am afraid, produced by the crew.

Whilst the average Sunrise punter, and crew member even, can be guaranteed to leave the place largely clear of rubbish, or at least unbagged rubbish (generally even separated into nice easily recyclable piles!) the production infrastructure leaves behind it a lot of waste that we are not proud of. To give an example, each set of 40 heras fence panels leaves behind several rusting metal straps, pins, a crate and various other junk items. At a flooded non-event like ours, this is compiled by hundreds of broken blocks, bent panels lost in a sea of mud and much much more.

The Sunrise clear-up was particularly challenging this year, even more so than in previous attempts where one or two of the core staff and directors have had to go out and fine pick often months after the event, as new waste turns up with the plough or harvest. This year, with the floods, much of the waste left behind (and there was of course a lot of mud caked useless extras that suffered this fate) was lost under the heavy clay and very difficult to remove without heavy machinery and many manhours. As a small, essentially broke organisation with about 5 part-time office staff left to toil over production of the Big Chill event, Sunrise didn't have either of these. So in the end, impetus for the clean-up did fall on the farm staff. Whilst some money, I am told, was paid to the farm for this, you can understand Becky's ire. On the other hand, hopefully people can appreciate our perspective, which is that the festival was a non-event and our resources in the circumstances made a total site clear-up almost impossible. The Maker Green Team stayed as long as they could and all obvious surface waste in their sphere was removed to their satisfaction. Other Sunrise staff (many blessings upon them) continued working on the land until the end of July to get it clear.

However, the record of Sunrise is again tarnished by an inability to clear-up the mess after the event (not just the physical mess either). We hold our hands up to this and admit culpability, AGAIN. Though the team is largely different to the past years, we have again found ourselves in the position of needing to struggle to keep our heads above water. Thankfully, the people who produce this event are amazing characters and the whole experience has actually made everybody and the organisation much much stronger.

So, waste is an issue for us and other festivals, and we are addressing it. Becky is upset because of the waste and generally because the result of the floods is that the land was heavily damaged and to repair this will take a lot of time, effort and money. As everybody who has been there knows, the land at Bearley Farm already needed a lot of healing and was, perhaps, not in ideal condition upon our arrival - with a small marshland lake already sitting within the arena. The floods, precipitated by the heavy clay, low-lying fields and state of the land, really made quite a lot of mess. As Sunrise is now moving on to pastures new and the farm is somewhat blacklisted as a venue in the eyes of the local authorities, Becky and Sid have no future festival revenue to hope for and thus, ultimately, would appear to have lost out heavily in all this. You can understand why Becky may have an agenda and most certainly is not happy.

For our part, whilst certain actions carried out by the landowners this year and previously, caused us to feel ire and despair, Becky and Sid largely did us well and put up with us when most people would have long ago turned their backs. For that, we give thanks. We wish them well and hope that we can work towards assisting them recover their losses in whatever way we can.

This is all probably a bit too much information, but we at Sunrise do prefer to reveal the honest truth wherever it does not hurt anybody to do so. Anyway, I am rambling. Our apologies for our imperfections (AGAIN!)

Dan

Posted: Sun Aug 24, 2008 10:46 am Post subject: Re: Can someone please explain?

Fair play Dan.

In the cold light of day I'm willing to cut Becky some slack, farming is a tough business and diversification is the way forward but I wouldn't wish the trauma of this clean up on anyone.

It's a great shame that our relationship with Bearly has ended on this sad note and I thank them for their hospitality but we move on, expectantly.

Posted: Sun Aug 24, 2008 10:53 am Post subject: Re: Can someone please explain?

Interesting comments, thank you Dan, there's always another side to things and I for one had been staggered at the suggestion of 150 to 200 tons of waste Shocked

We did - and always do - clear up after ourselves, it's one of the reasons it takes us so long to pack up Smile

But I know we lost some waste under the mud, inevitable in those conditions I suppose Sad

As mentioned above it was the same in the main arena at Beautiful days as well Sad

(being at the top of the hill in the camprvan field we didn't lose any of our waste in the mud tho) We went barefoot there on the Sunday (no dry shoes left and it's actually easier to grip in the mud without! Smile

) and I ended up taking our daughter to first aid cos of a cut toe!

Quote: › bio-chemical lab analysis of the mud on our boots, in our tents/vehicles and on ourselves at Bearley was at an actionable level.

I'm very concerned about this! Our girl and two of our friends daughters spent a number of hours wallowing like hippos in a large, liquid mud pool next to where we were camped! Shocked

Melvin

Posted: Sun Aug 24, 2008 12:40 pm Post subject: Re: Can someone please explain?

Thanks for taking the time and trouble to explain Dan. I'm also guilty of Becky-baiting and can now understand why she and Sid may be a bit miffed, although it seems it may not be as bad as she fears. Lets hope that Bearley Farm makes a good recovery and thanks for the fond memories.

CP x

Posted: Wed Aug 27, 2008 3:51 pm Post subject: Re: Can someone please explain?

What can iI say. I do not wish any bad feeling between us and the Sunrise team. While the festival was held at the farm I have met some fantastic people. To the sunrise team, try and have a better contingency plan next time you have a festival. After the initial team of cleaners left about a week after the festival we had no help at all with the litter apart from 1 skip. I used the money Sunrise paid for my litter picking to employ 2 local lads for a week and the rest we done ourselves. I have pictures of the rubbish and it may not mean much to SOME people that have moved on to pastures new, but Sid has worked hard to get the land the way it is for 23 years we still pay a mortgage we did not inherit it debt free. We do struggle to make ends meet but we will get over this eventually. Dan i would love to meet up with you again and discuss ways in which you could maybe avoid the huge problems you left at our farm.You have, as you said finished at Bearley don't make the same mistakes again at the next Bearely Farm

Posted: Thu Aug 28, 2008 10:48 am Post subject: Re: Can someone please explain?

Having scanned this forum thread yesterday I feel compelled to respond under my hat as Co-ordinator with the Maker Green Team.

Firstly its well worth remembering that Sunrise Celebration 2008 at Bearley Farm would have been a great success had the weather remained dry. All of the above issues contained within this thread were exacerbated by the appalling weather conditions and the spacial location of the Bearley farm site as a result.

I visited bearley farm two weeks prior to the public opening and as Dan pointed out even then in beautiful sunny conditions certain areas of the site were water logged.

When our core team arrived late Monday evening the area earmarked for our waste transfer facility and our camp was under about a foot of water.

Getting Maker Green Team volunteers on the Wednesday became very challenging but all of the 110 volunteer recyclers made it on site.

When the festival was canceled our operation switched from pre festival to post festival in an instant.

Of the 11500 capacity expected on site I estimated we had around 4000 persons in the swamp that became Bearley Farm.

Many of the food traders were open for business and other tat traders were all in a flux and many had set up.

The tractor operation to get people on site and off started well in advance of the public opening. More tractors arrived on the Thursday following the announcement of the postponement of Sunrise Celebration 2008.

By Friday morning the carving up of Bearley Farm was well under way with vehicles impacting waste sacks at many locations across the site but more so the totally flooded main arena site.

Of the 110 volunteers who came to facilitate our rota operation just 40 remained by Sunday. As usual within our operation a core group stays on after events to clear festival sites of landfill and recyclables.

The problem we faced was the levels of waste remaining and the abandonment of the crucial rota element but more so the contamination caused to recyclable materials by the flooded clay/mud surface.

On top of this we could not access the main arena to clear our bins, and the left waste by the departed traders and causal crew element.

Under normal conditions, the whole site would have been cleared within a week following the ending of Sunrise Celebration. As it turned out this was not possible until almost two weeks following the cancellation of the event.

With the forty core volunteers left we cleared the surrounding car parks, abandoned camping fields and crew camping areas by the following weekend. This was made possible by Ian (sunrise crew person) tractor driving and one of Farmer Sid's farm workers By the second weekend our team reduced further to just seven core members remaining (people have day jobs and most of us took time off to freely participate at this event).

The main arena began to dry out and we could access this with a tractor and trailer. Meanwhile Sunrise crew JCB loader drivers made three pyres of pallets and one of impacted tarpaulins. This was independent of our operations as the Maker Green Team only clears trader and attendee waste waste for recycling. Clean sweeps continued despite farmer Sid's keenness to shit spread the car parking area whilst our team volunteers attempted to clean sweep.

As Dan pointed out impacted material - the big stuff is just about impossible to remove by laboring.; Much of this material was collected and as I said this was piled in pyres of which I'd assumed was going to be burnt.

The Maker Green Team left Bearley Farm on Wednesday 11th June. And I was satisfied that we had done all we could with the volunteers team left and the resources we had available.

What was left was crew infrastructure including destroyed Herras fencing, pallets, scaffold materials, Natural events toilet infrastructure and wheelie bins, Sunrise Celebration orange make shift bin barrels and a small degree of impacted material.

In the week prior to the solstice I received a call from Jane of the Sunrise organization stating that waste still remained on the sunrise site.

On the Solstice weekend our chairperson on his return from Stonehenge visited Bearley farm with Jason, and Jamie. They scumbusted more waste in the production area. Then on the Sunday I returned with my son and we scumbusted more surfaced waste at and near the production area. Crew Infrastructure remained and the site still looked very sad!

Of the waste collected prior and after Sunrise Celebration we filled 10 eight yard skips of good clean recyclables plus two further contaminated landfill skips. Ther was just under 25 tons of material collected and sorted at Sunrise Celebration.

I am satisfied with how our team coped under the worst weather conditions I known since the epic mud bath of Glastonbury 1985.

I'm sorry for both the Sunrise organisation and Becky & Sid of Bearley farm. Things could have been so different but thats global warming folks - it rains more!

We have leaned a lot by our experience at Sunrise Celebration and this can only be a good thing.

I hope this goes some way in explaining circumstances from the Maker Green Teams perspective and experience.

We did the best we could!