After wrapping up last month, Glastonbury Festival‘s organizers recently came under fire for leaving hundreds of “zero hour contract” litter pickers stranded due to an overestimated workload. Yesterday, spokespeople on behalf of the festival issued a public statement dismissing claims of wrongdoing on their part.
“In response to recent stories in the media, we would like to state that Glastonbury Festival’s post-event litter picking team are all given temporary worker agreements for the duration of the clean-up,” read a post to the event website. “As well as being paid, they are provided with free meals and access to on-site facilities.”
The statement went on to explain that the labor hours required to complete the cleanup varied year by year. Organizers cited unusually dry weather and attendees’ proactive cleanup efforts as the factors reducing the cleanup time to 2.5 days, where in 2016 it had required ten. “Those who weren’t able to leave the site over the weekend were given further meals, plus assistance with travel to nearby towns with public transport links,” the statement read.
2018 is a “fallow year,” meaning that the festival grounds will be given time to recover during that time. Glastonbury Festival will return to Somerset, England in 2019.
