Hi :) What you guys do is fantastci :) i'm just gutted that ive never met you... i think i saw some tents with the retent symbol on at Bestival(IOW) 2012 but never saw you to get mine done :( oh well... theres always next time...

Anyway... heres my story:

after seeing the carnage left behind at some of the big mainstream festivals in britain(but not so much at the smaller ones... hmmm...), i decided to do my own bit of recycling.
after the festival had finished, i packed up my tent and then got to work on the tents around me... the night before i had identified several abbandoned tents and put striped traffic tape across the doors of suspected abbandoned tents to see if they were accessed through the night. i then started dismantling them and packing them away. i wasnt just doing this to be tidy or to scrounge old tents, i was specifically targetting broken, dirty and unloved tents. i was doing this because i used the old tent skins along with old rain coats, old umbrella's and random pieces of tarp to build a totally recycled tent which i am very proud of. it is a 12' Geodome made out of old tent poles, copiced hazel and random bits of waterproof stuff(tents, brollies, etc) it took me a season of collecting discarded tents and stuff, 1 day in the woods and 2 days in the workshop. i got the plans from http://www.weirdigans.co.uk/geo-dome.html and initially used old military style canvas tarps to cover it(as they are heavier and dont blow away) but it weighed a ton and as i dont drive i needed something that i could carry!!

I am totally in love with my Geodome and have taken it to a few festie's now. The last was Alchemy where it was definately put through its paces with heavy rain and gale force batterings. When i was building it, most of my friends were saying things like 'why bother, just buy a new one' etc etc... however, by the last day of Alchemy, i had somewhere between 7 and 12 people sleeping in my cobbled together shelter as all their new, shop bought tents had flooded or collapsed!! me? i was still safe and dry in my lovely lovely Geodome!! :)

If even 5% of the festival going population did this, there would be hardly any tents left behind and not only that but there would be a lot less people leaving the festival grounds with flu/colds/etc. its not rocket science and it doesnt take a massive amount of time and effort to build something that makes you swell with pride when you say to people, 'fancy coming back to MY tent?'

Lets make a difference this time and encourage people to share the plans,experiences and idea's of how to build these structures.

Lots of love, the Whitby Hippy