If you’d like to introduce the topic of festivals in the classroom, maybe especially with teens and young adults (though of course not forgetting we’re all young at heart!), you may find the links below useful.

This page was inspired by a conversation that kicked off when Katherine Bilsborough shared this article from the Guardian: David Attenborough praises Glastonbury for going plastic-free . Philip Shigeo Brown shared this link to an article about environmentally-friendly festivals and a second link to an article about people abandoning their tents after festivals thinking they go to charities. If you’d like a more satirical take, there’s this article from the News Thump team: Glastonbury site left spotless by festival-goers – shared by Daniel Barber.

Then there was the aftermath in Glastonbury. This is a BBC story on the cleaning-up after the festival. Cleaning up after 200,000 people. The photos accompanying the story contradict some of the quotes. It’d make an interesting critical thinking/information literacy lesson for teens or adults.

This clip from Tasmania gives a completely different picture of a post-festival clean-up and is a great antidote to the Galstonbury story. Admittedly a much smaller affair, but really impressive to see how clean the site is after a three-day festival. (Shared by Claire Venables). A festival without litter? A festival called PANAMA.

Comparing the two clean-up operations could open up some interesting discussions and get students talking about large events in their own countries and the attitude to littering. Maybe you could share a clip of the Japanese and Senegalese fans cleaning up the stadium after their games at the last World Cup?

If you have any ideas or clips or other materials to share on the topic, please add them in the comments, or come on over to Facebook and share them in the group. Thanks!

(This page is a work in progress, we’ll be adding more resources as the conversation continues).