A festival litter picker has shared some of the grim discoveries she made after just an hour cleaning up after a three day rock show.
Sophie Drew spent time with the clean-up operation at the Reading Festival and reported that security staff also had to get involved in the gross clean-up.
The festival made a huge return this year after being cancelled due to the pandemic in 2020, with big names like Stormzy taking to the stage, and a good time was had by the thousands in attendance.
However they left behind a lot more than litter and tents, with everything from false teeth to mobile phones abandoned on site, Berkshire Live reports.
Sophie said: "From soiled underwear to used condoms, there's no limit to the disgusting things you might find on the floor of a festival ground.
"To add insult to injury, the litter-picking staff were nowhere to be found, forcing security services to grab a bin bag and get to work, despite the role being a far cry from their job description.
"I tagged along to see what horrible we might find, and I was shocked at what I saw."
"Festival-goers enjoyed a late-night listening to Post Malone on the main stage, but it was the staff that had to deal with the consequences the next morning.
"Tiny bags (usually used for drugs) littered the ground as well as paper cups by the bucketload.
"In the hour I spent scouring the grounds, I managed to find 20 pairs of glasses and 10 vapes, as well as a used condom. However, my findings are nothing compared to what others have seen."
Among the worst things the festival workers have found were a ball gag, half a pair of false teeth, soiled underwear, used tampons, used and unused condoms.
The list of disgusting finds also included ore dangerous items such as nitrous oxide canisters and drugs including bags of cocaine and underwear and various shapes or forms.
More essential items were also discovered by the team cleaning up festival goers' mess which shocked even them.
The included a passport, a Covid vaccine passport, 50 iPhones and bizarrely an inflatable penis with a hole in it
One security worker told Berkshire Live said: "You don't even want to know what I've seen. We've had soiled underwear - always women's underwear weirdly, never men's - and condoms, used and unused."
Another said: "I found some false teeth, but only half because they were broken. That's probably the most random."
FOURTEEN FESTIVAL FINDS
- An inflatable penis with a hole in it
- Ball gag
- Pair of false teeth (but only half of them)
- Fouled underwear with stains in
- Pants (soiled)
- Tampons (used)
- Condoms (used and unused)
- Nitrous oxide canisters
- Matching knickers and a bra
- Bags of coke
- Used condoms
- Covid vaccine passport
- 50 iPhones
- Passport
