Byron Bay’s Splendour in the Grass festival was this weekend. Now photos surface of the littered grounds. Residents now want it to be cancelled.
Splendour in the Grass is under the microscope this week. The locals are criticising the amount of rubbish left by festivalgoers – some of them want are calling for its cancellation. There were 50,000 attendees at the three-day event. The campers were staying at the Byron Events Farm.
On Facebook, a video shows the grounds where the festival took place left with tents, mattresses, and other abandoned personal items. The caption of the video is: “You guys are coming back to pick this up right?”
Some users also mention how irresponsible the attendees are. Some, pointing out that this is a recurring issue.
“Every year there’s entire tents, Eskys, chairs and all sorts of perfectly usable equipment just dumped because grubs lack the brain cells to know how to pack it up or take it to the donation spots.”
One commenter on Facebook calls the event,
“[the] most unsustainable and unorganized festival ever.” “In these times, they shouldn’t be able to run it without some strict environmental guidelines. But it’s all about the money … as usual,”
Splendour? Or an Ecological Nightmare?
Greens politician and environmental lawyer Sue Higginson writes, “The land is the home of endangered ecological communities, 28 threatened species and is the site of significant aboriginal cultural heritage.” She says that the community fought so that the event wouldn’t be held at the North Byron Parklands, but it was overruled by the state government.
Bad Organisation, Bad Weather
One other issue of the festival was the lousy weather creating muddy grounds. Michael Lyon, the Byron Shire Mayor, said that the weather was “somewhat predictable” but he criticized the fact that the state government raised the capacity by 43%. He tells ABC: “I was never really in favour of the increase, but it has nothing to do with us. Those approvals are run through the independent planning authority from the state government point of view.”
All non-damaged goods and gear will be donated by the festival to Social Futures and Momentum Collective and will be redistributed to disadvantaged local people.
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