VOLUNTEERS spent hours clearing up piles of rubbish "as tall as houses" left behind at Boardmasters festival at Watergate Bay, writes Freddie Noble from SWNS.

One man said he estimated 70% of guests left kit behind - including brand new tents, chairs and mattresses, some still in boxes.

Photos show mountains of tents and rubbish left behind by some of the 60,000 festival-goers who visited.

Jay McGillan, 19, was working at the festival with Oxfam and said he was "shocked" when he saw how much rubbish was left behind.

After the festival ended, Jay spent four hours collecting tents, pumps, mattresses and chairs - all in brand-new condition.

Jay said he believes around 70 per cent of festival-goers left rubbish behind and said it looked like a "landfill site".

Jay, from Bath, Somerset, who works for a design company, said: "The piles were as tall as houses, but it was just the scale of the rubbish that was insane.

“There was a big construction team with a massive crane and they worked on them all night.

"There were bins the size of shipping containers all over the site with diggers constantly filling them."

Jay said he was "shocked" as many of the items left behind looked brand new so he took them home to recycle the material.

He said: “I stuffed them in my car and did two trips there and back to get as much material as possible.

“What was weird was I was hoping to find scraps, but I was finding so many camping chairs that were still in their bags and beds that looked brand new.

“Things were just sat there brand new, and I felt bad leaving it there and thought I’d take some home.

"It felt like a really strange thing to witness because of how Boardmasters relies on the British coast as a selling point for the festival."