St Albans charity collects tents and sleeping bags for homeless

Two charities have once again joined forces to salvage summer festival tents for homeless people while also helping the environment.

Homelessness charity Emmaus Hertfordshire, based in St Albans, has linked up with humanitarian charity Herts for Refugees (HFR) to repurpose discarded tents and sleeping bags.

They took part in the annual clear-up operation following the Isle of Wight festival.

Emmaus Hertfordshire’s business development manager, Gemma Beckett, said that last year its team helped to collect 260 abandoned tents and 150 sleeping bags.

Ms Beckett said the tents and sleeping bags were repurposes to “provide essential shelter and warmth to displaced people”.

This marks the fourth year the Emmaus community has supported Herts for Refugees in its ongoing festival salvage work.

It helped them at the Boomtown festival in Hampshire in 2022 and the Isle of Wight Festival in 2023 and 2024.

Angus Clark, chief executive officer of HFR, said: “People in need are people in need, no matter if they are at home or overseas, and we love working with Emmaus Hertfordshire.”

HFR was established in 2015 when the image of three-year-old Syrian refugee Aylan Kurdi was seen around the world, after his body washed up on a Turkish beach.

It started as a small collection in a flat in Watford but grew into an operation which filled seven storage units and led to a series of donation and volunteering convoys to Calais.

Mr Clark said that as well as donating to France, they supported refugees and delivered aid to Greece, Lebanon, Syria or for wherever need arose.

The charity carries out the salvage work at a number of summer festivals, with Reading Festival also on its schedule in August.

Festivals have come under criticism for the sheer amount of waste generated, with 71 tonnes of tents left behind at Reading in 2024.

Although Festival Republic, which runs Reading and Leeds festivals, said the 2024 events saw a reduction in waste compared with the previous year.

Mr Clarke has said it is more sustainable for festival-goers if they take their equipment home.

“The bigger picture environmentally has to be considered… we can only take such a small amount compared to what’s left behind,” he said.