A stage in one of Glastonbury's most hedonistic areas is going to be built completely from waste which would otherwise have ended up polluting our oceans.
The Gas Tower in Shangri-La, a staggering 360-degree audio-visual arena, will this year welcome some of dance music's biggest names including Eats Everything, Bicep, My Nu Leng as well as a Hospitality Records takeover including S.P.Y, London Elektricity and Grafix.
And thanks to a collaboration between Orca Sound Project, Shangri-La and environmental charity Keep Britain Tidy, it's going to be created from ten tonnes of plastic - the equivalent of about one million plastic bottles - collected from beaches, parks and streets across the South West.
Volunteers are going to collect rubbish from all over the region, starting from this weekend, before it is processed by Exeter City Council and recycled into materials to build the arena.
Saturday’s clean-up, the first of a series on the #RoadtoGlasto2019, will see volunteers completing a thorough clean on the remote Stanbury Mouth beach near Bude in Cornwall, with support from Lister Charitable Trust, Keep Britain Tidy’s BeachCare project and South West Water.
This will be followed by clean-ups across the South West from Somerset to Cornwall and London - but anyone in the South West can join in with the #RoadtoGlasto2019 by collecting plastic in one of Keep Britain Tidy’s Ocean Recovery Project ‘Dumpy Bags’. Details of how to do this are below.
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Keep Britain Tidy Chief Executive Allison Ogden-Newton said: “This ground-breaking project, bought to us by Orca Sound Project, will see tonnes of plastic removed from our environment - where it has such devastating consequences on our wildlife and marine life - and put to good use.
“By working together, we are showing the world that the plastic we no longer want or need can be recycled and turned into something that is both exciting and useful.”
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Creative director of Shangri-La, Kaye Dunnings, said: “Team Shangri-La are thrilled to be a part of this important, pioneering project.
"Through our collaboration with Orca Sound Project and Keep Britain Tidy we are able to continue our explorations into finding sustainable solutions for our work in the festival and creative industries.
"It's a total game-changer.”
How to get involved
To get involved with the #RoadtoGlasto2019, email oceanrecoveryproject@keepbritaintidy.org to receive a Dumpy Bag (a large bag of the type used to supply building materials) that can be filled with plastic bottles, food trays, yoghurt pots, plastic straws and other hard plastics collected from beaches, parks or streets.
There are 100 bags available.
#LitterHeroes taking part have until May 27 to fill the bag and it will then be collected from the front of their property on May 28 or 29 from 7am.
The plastic will then be processed into the stage in time for the festival.
Anyone taking part in the #RoadtoGlasto2019 will be encouraged to take photos and videos of their clean-ups and, with permission, some of these images will be shown on the video screens in the Shangri-La Gas Tower arena to raise awareness among festival-goers.
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