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Glastonbury Festival Donating Left Behind Gumboots To Refugees

Much like its antipodean cousin Splendour in the Grass, UK’s annual Glastonbury festival is often known for its wet and muddy disposition, and much like in Byron this year, gumboots (or wellies if you’re a pom) are the must-have festival item to navigate the treacherous sludge.

At the end of the festival however, the vast majority of these mud-covered gumboots are left behind at the site, causing a massive waste management issue for the festival, which in the past has been criticised for its poor dealings with left behind trash.

Festival head Liz Clegg has come up with a bloody nifty idea for the hundreds of gumboots and ponchos left behind each yeah, starting a charity campaign where the items are shipped to refugee camps in Calais, France.

The migrant camp dubbed The Jungle, is home to thousands of refugees from Darfur, Afghanistan, Syria and Iraq waiting for opportunities to (generally) illegally enter the UK via the Euro Tunnel or by boat.

“The migrants in Calais are living in desperate conditions, and we’re very pleased to be able to help support their basic humanitarian needs.” says an official statement on the Glasto website, which also outlines how organisers are assisting to instigate a system of recycling and waste management in Calais.

The awesome idea from Glasto is a great initiative that stops useless shipping off to landfill and helps out desperate refugees who often lack the basic necessities and is something that local festival organisers such as Splendour and Falls, should totally look into, especially given our government’s shithouse treatment of refugees at the moment.

Gallery: The Best Of Splendour 2015 / Pics by Yael Stempler

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