THOUSANDS of items left behind at the Creamfields Festival site have become “rich pickings” for a Warrington based charity.
Tents, sleeping bags and airbeds were just some of the items left behind in their hundreds if not thousands.
Lymm residents Su and Alan Williams were there as part of a team lead by Alison Collins supporting Nora Carlin’s Warrington based Refugee Aid NW charity.
“It was hard to know where to start.” explained Su. “Everywhere you looked there was what seemed like brand new equipment not to mention, shoes , boots and socks and a few cushions that looked like they had come straight off mum’s sofa!”
The organisers weren’t the only ones who were lucky to have a dry weekend as it meant all the salvage was in good condition for the volunteers . The items collected, mainly sleeping bags and clothing, were transported from the site by the team to be checked out and washed as necessary before being brought together at the charity’s base in Museum St ready for shipment by container to Greece.
Once there they are destined to provide warmth and a little comfort for migrants fleeing Syria.
“At one level it was devastating to see the chaos and the sheer amount of perfectly good stuff left behind by festivalgoers” added Alan. “But we preferred to focus on the positive and think about how something bought for one weekend’s use could actually help keep a whole family a little warmer over Winter.”
To find out more about the charity’s activities go to facebook.com and search Refugee Aid NW.
Su Williams loads up a car with rich pickings
16 Comments
It’s an ill wind, as they say. But no doubt a lot of the debris left behind by these idiots, is probably just rubbish. If a group of travellers left a site looking like this there would be an uproar. I don’t think we want these people back again next year…or ever.
No need for that, a lot of these people leave stuff behind in the knowledge that it will be used for charity! It’s been happening for years and is well known throughout the creamfields community!
Do seriously believe, looking at the way this stuff has been left strewn around, that the people who left it give a hoot about charity or anything else other than their own selfish pleasures? “Creamfields community” – they are scum
Guess it is worth noting that two landowners rent the land to LiveNation, who then clear the site before handing it back….one of them normally ploughs his fields and plants a crop. At one time, because of the risk of needles, tents etc were destroyed rather than recycled. One year, loads of wellington boots were left and collected by a charity…..some of them were the more expensive brands. With regards to the Licence to have the event, it now has a permanent licence, issued by Halton Borough Council, so unless Halton rescind the licence, or LiveNation decide to cancel Creamfields, it will be on next year.
Must be a bit of a worry for the landowners though as how do they know there are not needles on the ground which then will get ploughed in or even in the ground from previous years and ploughing too.
I wonder what crops they usually plant too……I hope no needles, or fragments of needles, get caught up in that when they come to harvest. Could that happen or am I just being stupid and over imagining…as usual…. ha ha
Not so much of a worry that they would decide to stop the the festival taking place on their land. Money is all that matters to them
Surprising that DEFRA allows crop growing on ‘contaminated’ land.
It’s Creamfields.. Not a crack den…
You’ll be more 1000x more likely to find empty condoms and small baggies than needles…!
Paul, do LiveNation or Halton BC pay for policing, traffic management etc and is there any contribution to WBC for ‘inconvenience’ to Warrington residents?
LiveNation pay for policing, and traffic management, they also make a small annual donation to the local Parish Councils in the immediate vicinity. I seem to think they pay Halton about £50k for the Licence. LiveNation claim that Creamfields brings £millions to the local economy……example might be beer sales at Morrisons!
Thanks for that info Paul. So WBC gets nothing! I would have thought some form of compensatory payment should be made for inconvenience. Also what about Warrington hospital, I suspect A&E had an increase in attendance over the festival weekend.
The resultant traffic congestion caused a serious incident in Stockton Heath a couple of years ago, a seemingly homeless man had taken an overdose and was in a critical condition at the forge shopping centre. Myself, other passers by and shop staff rang for an ambulance but none were available, it was absolutely ages before we got help and this was only by flagging down a passing ambulance and insisting on help. I rang the hospital later but was refused any information – The man used to be regularly seen in the area but since that incident has never again been seen. I wonder if the delay in help might have proved fatal.
The disruption caused by Creamfields is not just in a small local area it affects the whole town. I think LiveNation should be made to pay more.
That is correct Sha, there is no payment to WBC, the irony being that Halton, whose residents aren’t as inconvenienced do get money by way of the licence fee. Regarding Warrington Hospital and the NHS, it is an interesting point, and what is often said is that it is a national service, providing a service to all citizens where-ever they are in the country. I seem to recall that there was a policy of each local NHS authority being able to recharge costs to the area where the person being treated came from, not sure if that actually did or still does happen….or if the cost of administering it outweighs the benefits. I know that the NHS can claim from car insurance where they have to treat a motoring accident. I think LiveNation does pay for the St John’s service to be on site. You might recall that some years ago, two Walton residents went to Court to stop Creamfields, they lost and substantial costs were awarded against them. At the last Licensing hearing, although I no longer have my papers and I therefore might be wrong, but I don’t think WBC directly opposed the application.
It always shocks and annoys me how much stuff is just abandoned after Creamfields and other festivals. If people can manage to get their belongings there why can’t they manage to take them home again with them.
All that said, it’s great to hear that the local charity were allowed on site and that some of it is now going to a good use rather than just being thrown away by the organisers.
Yeh they should send tents ,sleeping bags and clothing down to The YMCA in warrington and help our own people . There’s many people that need our help on our own door step .
People on our own doorstep shouldn’t need tents and sleeping bags, they should have roofs over their heads and beds to sleep in but as you’ve noted Jane they do not have even these basic facilities. In a country with one of the top economies in the world the fact we have people in such need is nothing other than a disgrace.
Locally, much more could be done to ensure people are suitably housed, the Golden Gates Housing Association instead of building opulent offices for the staff, taking over job centre duties and providing ‘recreation’ should just concentrate on the basics and get people housed! And WBC instead of loaning money to provide profits for developers to build, often badly designed, new homes could be loaning that money for buying and renovating the many empty homes in the town and thus aiding the regeneration of already built up areas.
The “disgrace” is that there are people who apparently need help to provide a roof over their own heads. In a country that has provided free education for 100 years, they should be able to look after themselves. Who is to blame? Probably their parents.