Designer repurposes abandoned festival tents into sustainable fashion
A designer is creating sustainable fashion from abandoned festival tents, aiming to reduce waste from music festivals.
The Full Story
A plain summary built from the channels that reported this story.
A fashion designer in Manchester is tackling the problem of waste left behind at music festivals by turning abandoned tents into sustainable clothing and accessories. The initiative comes as the UK festival season reaches its peak, with thousands of tents being discarded each year.
Jess, a graduate of Manchester Fashion Institute, began researching the issue for her final collection. She discovered that an estimated 250,000 tents are left behind at UK festivals annually, and that a single tent contains roughly the same amount of plastic as 8,000 straws. This waste, she says, is both abundant and scalable as a material source.
Her process involves collecting tents after festivals, washing them, separating hardware, sorting and folding the fabric, and then bringing it to her studio in Manchester for cutting and sewing. The resulting items include cross-body bags and pouches made from tent ground sheets.
Jess recently worked with the sustainability team at Kendal Calling Festival, where she set up a tent processing area for festivalgoers to donate broken tents. She now has a car full of tents that she plans to use for her next collection, which will be showcased at Manchester Fashion Week in September.
Despite her success, Jess says she would like to go out of business because her ultimate message is for people to take their tents home. The initiative highlights the scale of festival waste and offers a creative, practical solution.
On screen
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Key Claims
Claims reported during this story's coverage, mapped by channel. Ordered by how many channels carried each claim.
| Claim | ITV |
|---|---|
| Around 250,000 tents are abandoned at UK festivals annually. | |
| Jess worked with the sustainability team at Kendal Calling Festival to set up a tent donation processing area. | |
| The average tent has as much plastic as roughly 8,000 straws. |
Channel Perspectives
What each channel focused on, with key quotes.
The report focuses on the positive, creative solution to festival waste, with a strong human-interest angle. It features an interview with the designer, Jess, and includes specific statistics about tent waste. The tone is upbeat and supportive, ending with Jess's wish to go out of business to encourage better behaviour. The channel also ties the story to the current festival season and upcoming Manchester Fashion Week.
- “It's a great idea because every single year it's estimated around 250,000 tents get left behind at UK festivals.”
- “So when I was researching for my graduate collection at Manchester Fashion Institute, I wanted to explore sustainability and I wanted to find a source of material that was abundant and also really scalable.”
- “As good as it is and as sustainable it is, believe it or not, Jess says she would like to actually go out of business because her message is please take your tents home.”
Broadcast Timeline
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