Huge V Festival clear up gets underway

A massive clean up operation was today under way at Weston Park as volunteers sift through the sea of tents, deckchairs, and clothing left behind by V Festival revellers.

More than 85,000 music fans flocked to the Staffordshire stately home over the weekend for the annual festival and left behind thousands of tents at the site.

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Around 250 volunteers from Rotary, Lions and Masons clubs moved on to the site last night to begin the mammoth clean up operation, which was continuing today.

Tents and chairs were today being collected to send to the International Aid Trust charity, which will clean and repackage them and send them to countries in need, including flood-stricken Pakistan.

Volunteers said heavy rain over the weekend had led to an increase in the number of tents left behind.

Bob Ware, president of Brewood Rotary Club, which organises the annual tent-gathering after V Festival, said: "It is difficult to estimate how many tents we have collected so far but I would say by last night we had around 1,000 and the large lorry from the International Aid Trust was around half full."

Former president of the club Keith Gater added: "I thought there were a lot more tents this year."

"We put this down to the weather. Last year, it was sunny so people took their tents away."