Litter Picking

For several years now, the Rotary Club of Lutterworth Wycliffe have been pleased to work with the Latvian community by litter-picking through the 3 days of their Summer Solstice festrival held at Catthorpe Manor followed by 2 days assisting with the clean-up operation.  The Latvian festival is the largest such festival in Europe (outside of Latvia), and  regularly attracts in excess of 3000 visitors. With the weather set fair and the prospect of a glorious sunny weekend, everything was in place for a succesful weekend.

Held on the estate of Catthorpe Manor, festival goers start turning up on the Thursday and Friday of the weekend, and our duties began on the Friday morning with 4 of  our volunteers scouring the areas and clearing litter for 2 or 3 hours.  Saturday morning saw the festival in full swing, and our volunteers for the morning couldn't help but be captivated by the colourful national costume, the family friendly atmosphere and the musical (and other) events taking place.  Sunday morning was a repeat exercise while the campers began to "break camp" and prepare for departure.  Monday saw us clearing up the carpark while the infrastructure in the festival area (staging, fencing, porta-loos etc) was dismantled and loaded onto HGVs.  Tuesday was the day that required the hardest work, and 12 volunteers were there to "deep-clean" the festival field.   As near as possible, the field is pristine by the time we finish.

We have been working with the Latvians for several years now, and although hard work, we really enjoy being a part of the festivities, and always receive a warm welcome.