More than two weeks after the Electric Picnic festival wrapped up a campsite that hosted concertgoers remains heavily littered, with sheep seen grazing this week among the rubbish.
The multi-stage concert attracted up to 75,000 revellers between August 15th and18th, many of whom slept in tents at Stradbally Hall Estate, Stradbally, Co Laois.
While tents have been removed, and much has been done to take way litter and clear up car parks, some areas remain in poor condition.
One field was this week seen strewn with plastic and paper, with broken and collapsed tents, bedding, roll out mats and different coloured bags across the ground.
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The field was also heavily populated with sheep grazing among the debris.
A spokeswoman for Electric Picnic said a “third party luxury tent provider was hit very badly by Storm Lilian [in late August] which resulted in the their campsites being delayed for clearance, for insurance purposes.”
She added that sheep had “escaped into” the field and was the only outstanding field which will be cleared by the close of business on Wednesday.
There has been some focus in recent years on the environmental impact of Electric Picnic, with Friends of the Earth calculating in 2018 that each festivalgoer left behind an average of ten kilograms of waste – equivalent to a full aircraft hand-luggage travel case.
The Electric Picnic festival website includes a section on sustainability. It says: “We acknowledge the impact that the festival has on the environment, are committed both to telling the truth about the scale of the climate and ecological emergency, and to taking urgent action.”
It also says: “As set out in our Green Nation Sustainability Charter, we recognise our responsibility to preserve the live music experience for generations to come and have a tremendous opportunity to inspire climate action at Electric Picnic.”
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