Litter Pick

For several years now, the Rotary Club of Lutterworth Wycliffe have been pleased to help the Latvian community by litter-picking through the 3 days of their annual Summer Solstice festival held at Catthorpe Manor, followed by a further 2 days with the clean-up operation.  The Latvian festival is the largest such festival in Europe (outside of Latvia) and attracts just under 5000 visitors. 

Held on the estate of Catthorpe Manor, festival goers start turning up on the Thursday evening and Friday of the weekend.  We were a little concerned over the weather forecast which was predicting a record-breaking heat wave, and so, we made an early start on the Friday at 8:30 am to try and complete the day’s task before 10:30 am.  As Friday is the day most of the campers arrive and set up camp, previous year’s experiences have shown that with little time for litter to accumulate, only two volunteers are required for this first morning, and just two of us were there on the Friday morning at  the start of the festivities.  And we were right: there was very little litter to be seen. 

It was a delight to meet up with members of the Latvian community once again, and after a very warm welcome, we set to work. By 10:30 am, we had done what we could, and so it was off to the canteen for coffee.  By this time, the warm June weather was turning into hot June weather, so we were very pleased we had finished our work for that day. 

As a result of the weather forecast, we again started work at 8:00 am on the Saturday and Sunday with the aim of finishing a little earlier before the heat of the day started in earnest. The first task on both these days was to clear the disco tent where there was an abundance of evidence of the previous night’s revelry!  From the volume of litter collected, it was apparent that the previous nights had been “a good night” .  After the clearing of the tent, the next area was in front of the main stage and the food area.  From there is was the toilet area (not the most pleasant of areas to clear!) and the thoroughfare through the campsite.  By Monday, the campers had broken camp and left, and we started the clearing up of the carpark while contractors commenced their work on dismantling the festival infrastructure (marquees, staging, fencing portaloos etc).  Tuesday ia always the busiest day for us.  With most of the infrastructure cleared, it was time for the final “deep clean” of the field where we needed all hands present (12 volunteers) to carry out a sweep of the area and return the field to a pristine condition – which I believe we achieved. It was just as we finished about 11:00 am that we could feel the temperature rising heralding the start of the predicted heat wave.  We were very pleased this was the last day as litter picking the following day (Wednesday with the heatwave on us) would have been unbearable.