A small lake of beer under the grandstand bleachers, overflowing dumpsters, questionable sleeping bags and an abandoned barbecue are just some of the sights in the annual Craven Country Jamboree cleanup.
The mess after the four-day music festival is nothing new, but it gets under the skin of some jamboree attendees.
“There’s some pretty disgusting people that come here, yeah. No regard for anybody, but themselves basically,” Jon Secuur said.
Secuur was out on Monday picking up empty cans with his daughter Megan. It’s a post-Craven tradition for the two, who capped off their experience with a run to Sar-Can and a visit to Toys-R-Us.
However, not all the camps are filled with carelessly discarded cans. On Monday morning, there were lots of campsites where garbage was neatly collected in bags awaiting pickup.
Organizers said that the dry weather is a welcomed help for the clean-up efforts, which they anticipate to finish by Thursday.
“It does make everything easier. Not just for us logistically as a festival, but for everyone getting in and out of here. Certainly keeping their camp sites clean and tidy,” assistant marketing director, Gerry Krochak said.
A team of 140 workers has been hired to handle the cleanup, which includes clearing garbage for camp sites, handling dozens of dumpsters, and clearing about 300 porta-potties.
In the meantime, residents in the village of Craven have to look at the mess. Most people Global News spoke with enjoy the festival, and see the mess as an unfortunate, but an inevitable side effect.
“If you look at it right after the jamboree’s done it is a field of garbage out there, but it is gone within a week,” Rick Taylor said.
“It is cleaned up and spotless within no time at all.”
“I think it’s sad. I think it comes with any type of music festival, though,” Emily Dias said.
“It’d be nice if people were a bit more responsible and took their own garbage out, but I do know sometimes dumpsters are over-filled and stuff blows around.”
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