global hand were the organisation promoting this. but organisation is a bit of poor description. they got 50 people into the festival fro free but gave them no resources to collect tents - that right no transport, tools, or any kind of conatinment. what a load of bollocks eh?

It suited Glastonbury organisers to be able to say that the tents would go to Africa. They got lots of criticism over the waste produced by the festival and it is totally normal for people to abandon thousands of tents, gaz-e-bows, air mattresses, tins of beans etc rather than carry them back to their cars. Saying they were going to be sent to Africa meant that their punters could go home feeling not only less guilty but actually virtuous for dumping their gear. The people who made the offer, well they got a budget and all their mates into the feastival for free which is a neat trick as it gets harder each year.

Hey, did you hear there is a genocide going on in Darfur? What difference a few fucked up tents are going to make?
Hope it makes us all feel good to throw a few bread crumbs to the poor, and not even that. Disgusting.

Argos sell a disposable 1 use tent

sick

People were asked to pack their tents down, not just leave them standing. Global Hand volunteers processed 700 tents and other camping gear which were dutifully packed down and handed into the campground stewards. Processing these took them two ten hour days. They also worked during the festival on 6 hour shifts every day. They more than earnt their ticket.

15 other organisations also went and picked up tents - like scout groups and rotary clubs. They didn't get tickets to the festival.

It takes 15mins to pack a tent down, another 15 to reassemble it so it can be dried and cleaned. A day left standing undercover to dry it completely. It would take hundreds of people do this for 1000's and 1000's of tents.

The tents are not being sent to Africa. The tents are put into a central database which charities enter their needs into. That could be in north of England for underprivalaged kids going camping, to refugee camps, to orphages in India, or possibly to Africa. However a £10 flimsy tent that someone has abused for 5 days isn't really that worthwhile.

Hope that explains things.

From someone who knows someone that worked with Global Hand!