Volunteers at a popular festival in the southwest spent hours clearing away piles of rubbish left behind after last weekend’s Boardmasters festival. One man estimated that 70 per cent of festival-goers had left behind equipment – including brand new tents, chairs and mattresses, some still in boxes.

Photos show mountains of tents and rubbish left behind by some of the 58,000 festival-goers who visited Newquay in Cornwall last weekend.

Jay McGillan, 19, worked with Oxfam at the festival and said he was “shocked” to see 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.

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Jay said he believed around 70 per cent of festival-goers had left rubbish behind, saying it looked like a “landfill”. Jay, from Bath, Somerset, who works for a design company, said: “The piles were as high as houses, but it was just the scale of the rubbish that was crazy.”

“There was a large construction crew with a huge crane and they worked all night long. There were containers the size of shipping containers all over the site, and they were constantly being refilled by excavators.”

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 drove there and back twice to get as much material as I could.”

“The funny thing was, I was hoping to find junk, but I found so many camping chairs still in their bags and beds that looked brand new. The stuff was just sitting there brand new and I felt bad leaving it there and thought I would take some home.

“It was a really strange feeling to witness because Boardmasters uses the British coastline as a selling point for the festival.”