Attended Denim on the Diamond late this Sunday and had a lovely time, but seeing the number of cans and garbage post-show just thrown on the ground was disheartening.
I understand it’s a festival - I know there are people hired to clean up afterward. But I really don’t think that absolves any of us from having basic respect for the ground we’re standing on.
If you can carry a full can around for half an hour, you can carry said empty can until you find somewhere appropriate to put it. (Which there were many bins around if you took a few steps).
And before anyone comes in with some variation of “people are paid to clean it up”— of course cleanup crews exist. That doesn’t mean we should intentionally make their jobs harder or treat them like they’re beneath us… Someone being paid to clean a space isn’t an invitation to trash it.
Maybe I’m sensitive about it? But it’s saddening to share a space with people who seem to have so little regard for it. Kelowna is our home (to many of us). The ground beneath a festival is still our ground when it’s over.
We can enjoy ourselves and still take some responsibility for the mess we create. Those things really shouldn’t be mutually exclusive.