Abandoned tent village at Leeds festival to be recycled for homeless

A video of a man collecting discarded tents for the homeless during the aftermath of Leeds festival has been shared widely online following the end of the Bank holiday weekend knees-up.

Carl Simpson, the founder of Hull homeless charity Raise the Roof, videoed himself collecting hundreds of sleeping bags and tents that had been left behind by revellers at campsites around Bramhall Park – sharing images of the destruction first hand via Facebook live.

“Just thousands, after thousands, after thousands, of just discarded tents, sleeping bags, we’re trying to get what we can but as you can see it just goes on and on,” you can hear Carl saying into the camera as he pans across a huge expanse of fields littered with debris and discarded camping equipment.

“And this is only a little part of it. Unreal.”

The footage is sure to shock some, although it is a typical reality of many festival campsites at the end of a long weekend of partying. Sadly, it isn’t unusual for people to buy a cheap tent and then simply leave it behind when it comes time to pack up and go home.

The floor is shown to be covered in litter, there are partly-destroyed tents simply abandoned alongside others that are perfectly fine to be used again – and the mess stretches out for miles.

Where some might see something to complain about, though, Mr. Simpson saw an opportunity to help – traveling down to Leeds with a team to collect the discarded items, which would have otherwise ended up in the bin.

Instead, he will now repurpose them for vulnerable service users of his Hull homeless charity before sharing the rest with other similar projects that work with vulnerable people.

These will then be distributed to various outreach projects and charities across Yorkshire.

“Just remember any homeless organisations next year when this is on,” continues Carl as he speaks into the camera.

“Get yourselves down here because this lot can save many lives during the winter.”

Amongst their haul of sleeping bags and tents, the team also collected a pop-up gazebo, which they say will come in handy for their on-street outreach, as well as a number of blow-up beds and chairs.

The recovered items from the festival will now be used to help both refugees and homeless people across Yorkshire and the rest of the UK.

Feature image – Raise The Roof Homeless Project.