In 2019, Glastonbury Festival tried to get attendees to use the toilets with the slogan ‘Don’t Pee On the Land’, and we presume (as we know people), they were royally ignored. What I don’t think any attendee realised was what actually happens when a few hundred thousand people at a music festival widdle into the eco system…
… but know we do. Scientists from Bangor University’s School of Natural Sciences told monitored the amount of drugs in the neighbouring river Whitelake around the time of Glasto 2019 and discovered the levels of MDMA were 104 times higher, and cocaine 40 times higher than normal. Levels so high, wildlife was threatened, including some rare eels.
Author Dan Aberg told the Guardian “Illicit drug contamination from public urination happens at every music festival… Unfortunately, Glastonbury festival’s close proximity to a river results in any drugs released by festival attendees having little time to degrade in the soil before entering the fragile freshwater ecosystem.”
Now to be fair to Glasto, they have released a statement: “We have a thorough and successful waterways sampling regime in place during each festival, as agreed with the Environment Agency. There were no concerns raised by the Environment Agency following Glastonbury 2019.”
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