Glastonbury Festival 2023: The clean-up operation to rid sea of rubbish from Worthy Farm

The clean-up operation has begun at Worthy Farm following this year's Glastonbury Festival.

More than 200,000 music fans flocked to the site from last Wednesday, 21 June, and were treated to a number of special performances from the likes of Sir Elton John, Lizzo, Lewis Capaldi and Fred Again.

It is believed that around 1,000 litter pickers are making their way around the Glastonbury site with tonnes of rubbish expected to be collected.

The volunteers separate the waste as they go so that as much as possible can be composted or recycled.

Revellers are making their way home.

The festival has implored music fans to take everything home with them, writing on Twitter: "When you’re packing up your tent, please put your rubbish in the bin bags provided by campsite stewards and take home all of your belongings to use again next time! Thank you. Love the farm, leave no trace!"

Drivers were encouraged to leave the site before 7am on Monday morning to avoid queues and were urged to have food, drink and supplies in their car in the event of long waits.

Advice for those with cars said: "From 8am until 5pm on Monday there are likely to be queues as our stewards work hard to help all the cars which arrived over three days to leave in one day.

"None of the staff can go home until you have, so please be calm, respectful and understanding."

The litter left at the site ranges from cardboard cups and cans to odd bits of fancy dress and food boxes. Despite the scale of the job, those working to clean up Worthy Farm today hope to be finished by around lunchtime.

Thousands of tonnes of rubbish is expected to be collected.

One volunteer, named Rocky, said that that the festival was often left in a worse state in years gone by. He said: "I came down this morning and thought 'this doesn't look bad' considering there were about a quarter of a million people here.

"A long time ago, it would have been way worse, when single use plastics were allowed and the caterers sold everything in polystyrene. Even 10 years ago there would have been loads and loads of chairs left, and this year there will be fewer tents [left] than ever."