Thousands of items including tents and camping equipment, alongside litter, have been abandoned on the fields of Richfield Avenue following Reading Festival.

Drone shots have shown a sea of litter left behind by revellers after this year's festival, which welcomed campers from Wednesday, August 23 to Monday, August 28.

It comes as Reading Council reported a total of 105,000 people in attendance at the three-day music event.

Similar images have been seen each year and despite efforts to reduce litter and single-use tents, the problem persists.

This year festivalgoers were urged to say no to single-use plastics and take their tents home.

Despite this, each year Reading Festival operates a clean-up operation to ensure the environmental impact is minimised.

A Reading Festival spokesperson said: "We coordinate a salvage operation after the festival for organisations to collect some of the perfectly reusable camping equipment that is left behind therefore reducing the amount of waste that goes to energy from waste."

Last year the total waste generated from Reading Festival was 42 tonnes lower than in the previous year – a decrease of 5.07 per cent.

There was also a 21 per cent decrease in tents left behind at the site year on year.

The introduction of glass bottle bins, biodegradable food and drink containers and the banning of BBQs and fires are also some of the steps Reading Festival is making to become greener. 

@bigladderphotographer The aftermath of the 2023 Reading Festival. 2pm Monday 28th August 2023. . . . #reading #readingfestival #environment #fyp #foryourpage #drone #bigladder ♬ Emotional Cinematic Sad Violin and Piano - ISAo