Oztix | News | UPDATE: Festival Organisers Respond To Outrage Over Trashed Site

UPDATE 4.20pm:

Lost Paradise organisers have responded to footage of the trashed festival site shared online in a statement given to The Music today.

See the full statement below.

Meanwhile, local council have informed The Music that officers will be sent out to the site to investigate whether there are any breaches of the festival's development consent.

"Lost Paradise has always been a forward-thinking event, committed to leaving zero trace on our festival site, and ensuring the Glenworth Valley remains as pristine and perfect as we found it. The team that produce Lost Paradise are dedicated to ensuring that the grounds are returned to the family of horses that occupy the grounds regardless of time or effort.

Massive cleanup crews are working long hours to ensure that we leave absolutely no trace on the Glenworth Valley site, as we’ve done every year since our inception in 2014.

In 2017, we also introduced an Eco Bond on every ticket sold. This $10 fee is refunded if a guest collects and hand in 1 bag of recycling and 1 bag of general waste at the event. If not, it is forfeited and goes towards the cleanup effort, and for future protection and preservation of our festival site. Over 22000 bags where handed out on entry at the start of the festival.

For the last two years, we’ve also partnered with Green Connect, to further reduce our impact on the environment. Green Connect are a social enterprise that works to keep waste out of landfill, and champions the employment of young people and former refuges. While we don’t yet have figures for this year’s event, last year we kept 10.6 tonnes of organic material out of landfill, and put it to work growing seasonal, organic food with Green Connect.

In the end however, regardless of all the efforts we put in place to minimize the impact we put on the Glenworth Valley festival site, we can’t do this alone – we rely on our guests and everyone involved to do their part for the environment and take whatever they have brought with them away again, and use one of the many bins and Eco Stations provided on site. Unfortunately not everyone helps with this effort and considerable quantities of camping equipment and trash has again been left behind. We have a very large contingent of cleaners, both during the festival and post, with dedicated Popran Creek teams, who hit the grounds from the moment the campgrounds were vacated.

In the case of usable camping supplies left at Lost Paradise, we donate these to charitable organisations and partner with the Hawksberry Helpers, who can put them to good use. Regarding trash and recyclable materials left on site our crews will be working day and night to ensure all traces are removed."

A heated debate has been sparked after footage released online shows the site of NYE festival, Lost Paradise, left in a catastrophic state.

The footage, posted to Facebook today by Jesse McNair, was allegedly captured at the conclusion of the four-day Central Coast event and shows a number of vacated and trashed tents, as well as an excessive amount of rubbish.

"The festival organisers and patrons need a massive wake up call," McNair wrote on the video post.

"Hardly a bin in sight! For 4 days campers trashed their own camp sites living in squaller but who cares as long as they partied hard that’s all that matters to the younger generation."

It continues, "This is a disgrace. This festival site is surrounded by pristine National Park and a lot of this rubbish was blowing into the tidal creek that flows into the #hawksburyriver and into our beautiful #pacificocean."

McNair's post was met with conflicting opinions, with some blaming the rubbish on careless attendees, while others blamed festival organisers for not providing enough bins.

Check out the video below.

Lost Paradise hosted a number of big-name Aussie acts this past weekend, including RÜFÜS, Matt Corby, Meg Mac and DMA'S.

The team behind the festival was at the centre of controversy late last year when punters from its October event, Lost Picnic, demanded refunds due to being stuck in food and bathroom lines for up to 90 minutes.

Some took their complaints to Fair Trading, while a petition was also launched to shut Lost Picnic down permanently.

The Music has contacted festival organisers and local council for comment.