Lost Paradise Festival: Abandoned camping equipment goes to the homeless, not the bin
Updated
It's the final day of a music festival — a sea of brand new and now abandoned tents, camp chairs and air mattresses span the horizon.
Typically this equipment that made up the temporary village would permanently reside in landfill, but one group is working hard to pass it to those who were living on the streets while festivalgoers were moshing.
At the Lost Paradise Festival, held in the Glenworth Valley on the NSW central coast, the Hawkesbury's Helping Hands spent the first day of 2018 collecting discarded camping equipment from the event so it can be reused by the homeless.
The music, food, art, yoga festival, which wrapped up on New Year's Day, has been at the centre of attention this week after a video of its aftermath went viral.
It wasn't pretty — entire campsites were deserted and left for others to pack down, and rubbish rode the winds which swept into the nearby national park.
Whether the blame is to be worn by the event organisers or the patrons themselves is a point of contention, but underneath the outrage, Helping Hands is focused on one thing: repurposing.
Helping Hands founder Linda Strickland said it was unbelievable what people left behind.
"We are totally amazed at the quality and quantity of items that are just left, thrown away and discarded," she said.
"Brand new tents, insect repellent, shoes, eskies ... in this weather do you know how great it is for our homeless to have an Esky?
"The whole time we were all just 'Oh my gosh look at that! And that!'"
Some of the best scores were six trestle tables, desperately needed for the many meals the group serves, and insect repellent — vital for those out in the elements.
"It's so expensive and we had just run out," Ms Strickland said.
The group of 20 volunteers, including a few who are homeless themselves, took two days to comb through the remnants of other people's good times.
The many homeless people who live in campsites along the Hawkesbury River will receive rescued goods with the remainder heading to other homeless charities in NSW.
"The bush and the banks of the Hawkesbury are now abuzz with excitement," Ms Stirckland said.
"Everyone [is] talking about the 'home improvements' coming their way."
A one stop shop
The Helping Hands group went hard and piled up trailers worth of much-needed items and are facing the (fortunate) problem of 'where do we put this?'
It's not a simple task when the organisation is run out of Ms Strickland's home.
"We can't afford another storage shed," she said.
"So at the moment everything is on trailers or tarps in people's backyards.
"One lady who had a ute full of items said she was going to just put everything in her spare room."
Some may see it as an imposition, but they simply see it as "worth it".
"It will all find homes," Ms Strickland said. "It goes directly to people in need who will appreciate them."
Already 2018 is a more comfortable year for one man who started it with no intact shoes, but finished it with a brand new pair of hiking boots someone left behind.
"They still had the price tag," he said.
"He probably slept in them."
Topics: arts-and-entertainment, events, carnivals-and-festivals, homelessness, community-and-society, windsor-2756
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