I can’t imagine what it’s like to be a worker at a festival that has to clean up the grounds after tens of thousands of people (or maybe hundreds of thousands) have been there for a day or even a few days.
It’s gotta be a little bit like walking through the aftermath of a zombie apocalypse, don’t you think?
Have you ever found anything weird on the ground at a festival or an event?
Let’s see how AskReddit users responded to this.
1. Score!
“I was working at a festival (although not doing clean up) and stayed till the day after.
The amount of tents people leave behind – brand new tents!
Basically, people just buy new stuff for that festival and then can’t be bothered to bring it home/dispose of it properly.
I ended up with a brand new 10 person tent, thanks to some other people’s laziness.”
2. Well, that’s disgusting.
“The worst is definitely a tie between the 5 liter water carrier filled with urine or the lidded saucepan containing a single, fairly large sh*t.”
3. Metal!
“I saw a prosthetic leg left at the end of a metal festival.”
4. Don’t look in the punch bowl.
“My dad used to be the guy in charge of renting out the Knights of Columbus hall.
Per policy, he had to be on-site during the event, but would clean up after. The cleanup would usually be the next day, and I’d come along to help.
The best thing we found was a $500 tip left behind by the father of the bride after a wedding reception with a little thank-you note.
The worst was finding the punch bowl the next day after someone had puked in it and put a lid over it. I’m pretty sure it had been spiked with something pretty strong before that, too.”
5. Classy!
“A HEAVILY used d*ldo.
Stuck, tip up, on a tent-stake.”
6. Score!
“I found a cooler and $135 in the lot after a Phish show.”
7. Whoa!
“A dead body. It was an apparent OD.
Booze and drugs. Also a nitrous tank.
That night after work was fun…”
8. So gross.
“Oh by far the worst was a group of friends (easily 10-15 of them by the ‘evidence’) who had a tent that they used as a ‘bathroom’ so they didn’t have to go to the portaloos.
Fully just sh*t in the corner and worked their way out over the days. It was horrendous, I don’t understand how anyone could have gone in there with the smell.”
9. Are you alive?
“We’d always find pipes, condoms (in various states-gross) once I found a gift card mixed in with the detritus next to the stage, checked the 1-800 number and it still had $100 value.
But, I don’t know if it is the best or worst thing, but one time after the last concert, after the bands left and the sound and light contractor had packed out and left, we found a girl under the stage. Seriously hung over and looking like hell but still alive. Apparently, she crawled up under there at some point and passed out, slept for 6 hours.
One of the house crew loaned her a cell phone and she called someone to come pick her up. Off she went to rock another day.”
10. Uh oh.
“The morning we woke up to leave Bonnaroo, one member of our group found an 800g chunk of opium on the ground outside his tent.
It was amazing, super high quality and we couldnt really believe it. He gave each of us a hunk and kept the rest. Unsurprisingly it actually was the catalyst for him to slide into opiate addiction and changed his life forever.
I often wonder how life would have turned out for him if he had just looked the other way.”
11. New clothes.
“I found my favorite cardigan while cleaning up after a country show.
It was in the grass, all trampled and covered in beer and dirt, but it was my size and in otherwise good condition.
I took it home, washed it like four times, and now I wear it often.”
12. Don’t reuse those, okay?
“I’ve been going to a small anime/gaming festival, like 300 people max, every summer for 8 years.
Every year multiple s*x toys are found during the clean-up.”
13. Money is dumb.
“I was working at a super bougie day festival in NYC right out of college.
It got rained out for two days but on the third it was gorgeous. It was like rosé themed or some sh*t, so everyone was wearing pink and white and there were gourmet chefs making super overpriced food but it was delicious.
As the last act played my manager told me to start cleaning up the artist area— pretty much everyone had left except for the two super hot bartenders. They felt sorry for me while I was cleaning so they called me over and handed me a bottle.
Straight up they said “take as much as you want, there’s too much because of the cancelled days.” So needless to say I got very drunk with them and grabbed like 5 bottles of really nice rosé (that’s all I could carry in my bag.)
Then as I was leaving, the chefs, who I had chatted with earlier started giving me boxes and boxes of food for the same reason. It really was a waste but as a broke grad I was absolutely in heaven.
The ground was littered with expensive sunglasses, jewelry, credit cards, etc. I found a pair of brand new ray bands that remarkably hadn’t been crushed. Really nice clothes too but they were covered in mud so I didn’t grab any of it.”
Have you ever found anything weird at a festival or an event?
If so, tell us all about it in the comments.
Please and thank you!
