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Here's how leaving your tent behind at Electric Picnic can help refugees in Calais

Those attending Electric Picnic this year will get a chance to help the refugees at Calais in som...
Newstalk
Newstalk

08.32 5 Sep 2016


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Here's how leaving you...

Here's how leaving your tent behind at Electric Picnic can help refugees in Calais

Newstalk
Newstalk

08.32 5 Sep 2016


Share this article


Those attending Electric Picnic this year will get a chance to help the refugees at Calais in some small way by dropping their tents off at a designated collection point.

Festival goers will be asked to donate their used tents and sleeping mats after the festival, with tent donation points available at every campsite as well the Global Green area inside the main arena.

Speaking to newstalk.com, Roisín Ní Ghairbhith of Green-Schools explained that the idea came from witnessing just how much waste there was after last year's festival, and thinking of a way to put that to good use.

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"I went to Calais last October and saw 7,000 refugees with the worst living conditions I've ever seen," said Ní Ghairbhith, "and I was also at Electric Picnic last year where I saw about 30,000 tents abandoned and heading to landfill, and put two and two together."

"Having seen the amount of good-as-new tents people leave behind after festivals, and how useful they would be, there is so much waste at Festivals and so much want in Calais"

Outside of the designated drop off points, there will also be 70 volunteers on Monday available to pick up the tents that have been left behind. 

As Ní Ghairbhith highlights, in her day job with Green-School she teaches "children all the time about reusing and not wasting stuff, so why not expect the same from adults? Especially when there are over 7000 refugees, including over 700 unaccompanied minors, with literally only the shirts on their back in Calais”.

Over the weekend, a protest has begun in Calais to get part of the "Jungle" refugee & migrant camp removed, with French hauliers, farmers and unionists attempting to put futher pressure on authorities to tackle the camp.

The size of the area has swelled in recent months, and talks took place between protest organisers and French interior minister Bernard Cazeneuve on Friday.


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