By Courtney Davies
Over the summer people have gathered to celebrate the comeback of live music. This came after all social distancing guidelines were dropped on the 19th of July, resulting in many of the festivals which have gone ahead to sell out.
To make these events safer coronavirus restrictions have been put into place. Festival-goers this summer have had to generate a Covid-19 pass to show either proof of a double vaccination, a negative lateral flow or a positive PCR in the last 180 days after 10 days isolation. Some people who attended camping festivals have shared TikTok’s of them either testing positive for Covid or ill with a cold. Which is expected after sleeping outside for days.
https://twitter.com/Parklifefest/status/1434533357157761024
But at the actual festival people have been soaking up the live music. Or have been enjoying spending time with their friends again.
Reading & Leeds Fest
Stormzy, Disclosure, Post Malone, Catfish and the Bottlemen, Liam Gallagher and Queens of the Stone Age headlined Reading and Leeds festival. During Stormzy’s performance at Reading festival, he brought out fellow rapper Dave. Dave repaid the gesture by bringing out Stormzy as his special guest at Parklife in Manchester. Meanwhile at Leeds festival, Stormzy was joined on stage by Chunkz and the newest Manchester City footballer Jack Grealish for his headlining set.
https://twitter.com/OfficialRandL/status/1432067794296844288
But when the festivals are over the amount of litter left across the fields is spread across social media. This includes rubbish, or left behind, tents chairs and gazebos at camping festivals. Although, this year Herts for Refugees estimated that they collected 2,300 tents and 500 sleeping bags from Reading festival. Providing them with over £100,000 worth of equipment to transport to the refugees living in the French ports.
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Creamfields
Over the same bank holiday weekend people gathered at Creamfields in Cheshire, again to celebrate the comeback of live music at one of the biggest electronic dance festivals. The sell-out festival had more than 300 DJs performing over the four-day event. This included artists such as: Carl Cox, Eric Prydz, Peggy Gou, Bicep and Fisher. To encourage people to look after the environment, recycling points were placed around the festival. This was an area for people to dispose of any tents, chairs or gazebos that they didn’t want to take home.
If you have any broken tents, chairs, gazebos, unopened tins of food after the festival please take them to the Recycling Points and use the bins provided. pic.twitter.com/0Qp118E6My
— Creamfields (@Creamfields) August 30, 2021
If you are a fan of this particular music festival, you’re in luck. In 2022 Creamfields will go ahead not only once, but twice. Firstly over the bank holiday weekend at the start of June as a two-day event. Before it’s usual four-day event over the August bank holiday weekend.
After a summer of festival comebacks you may find yourself missing the joy of live music. But until next year, you can find the Creamfields Spotify playlist here.
Image courtesy of Courtney Davies. No changes were made to this image and permission was granted by the author.
courtneydaviesjournalism
I am a third year Broadcast Journalism student based in Manchester. I have a passion for journalism in both broadcast and print. I also enjoy making content for social media. I mostly write for the entertainment section of Empoword Journalism about television, music and celebrities.