Picnic mess ‘no worse than usual’ – estate owner

THE owner of the Stradbally estate has described the images of waste estimated at 10kg per person at Electric Picnic as “shocking” – but insisted the mess was no worse than previous years.

Thomas Cosby said that the Jimi Hendrix campsite – where the “biggest partiers” and youngest festival-goers camped – had been the worst for people leaving behind tents and rubbish.

Mr Cosby defended rubbish management at the festival, saying the bins had been emptied throughout the weekend in order to prevent any overflow of waste.

He also explained that the state the site had been left in wasn’t a huge issue for him personally as by yesterday evening most of the rubbish would be cleared up, with the dry weather this week helping to speed up the process.

Mr Cosby said the family campsites were a “much different scenario” as they were left in better condition than larger campsites such as Oscar Wilde and Jimi Hendrix.

“Some of the campsites are much better than others,” he said.

“If you take it now, by this evening 90pc of that [rubbish] will be gone.”

Mr Cosby believed efforts by organisers to provide adequate waste dumping facilities had been lost due to the exposure of the mess left behind by Picnic-goers online.

“The bins are there and they’re emptied all through the weekend,” he said.

“The way it is presented at the moment is that it looks like nothing has been done but it is happening, it is just kind of lost in the aftermath.

“It is shocking to look at but it has been managed over the weekend. Jimi Hendrix was worst, where the youngest and heaviest partiers go. If you look at the higher end campsites, like the family campsites, it’s a much different scenario,” he added.

Friends of the Earth director Oisín Coghlan also said smaller, more exclusive campsites such as the Gaeltacht and eco sites were cleaner.