There have been posts across social media about the traffic chaos which spoiled the Autumn Lights fireworks event for many at the Norfolk Showground.
However, more horrifying than the hours in a queue was the carnage which was left behind.
We arrived at around 7pm, so the gates had been open for three hours.
There was plenty to do, lots of fairground rides and games, food and drink stands and a DJ playing a set.
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There were loads of bins, it was hard to find an area that didn’t have one, and of course, the showground has toilet blocks so it should have been a straightforward event, right? Wrong!
After sitting in the long queues to arrive we decided to hang on for a while after the fireworks had finished and enjoy the rides to avoid being stuck in another queue of people trying to leave, and once the crowds cleared, the magnitude of selfishness was clear.
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The sheer amount of rubbish left behind looked as though there had been a festival on the site for days, not a five-hour event – it was disgusting.
There were plastic cups and food packaging as far as the eye could see despite most bins not even being half full and it was a real shame.
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But the horror didn’t stop there, the loos looked as if they had been abandoned for years, there were sodden wet, half-used toilet rolls strewn across the floor, piles of wet hand towels in and around the sinks – again despite there being bins.
And it took a good while searching for a toilet that hadn’t been clogged up with toilet paper.
What’s scary is this was just a five-hour event and it seems this sort of behaviour is happening more since the pandemic.
What has happened to the ‘fine city’ have we all reverted to being Neanderthals?!
*In response, Richard Greenacre, commercial director at the Showground, said: “Waste management is an issue we take extremely seriously here at Norfolk Showground. As one of the largest community arenas in the region, we see over one million visitors each year pass through our gates and our facilities team removes waste as quickly as we can. We provide hundreds of bins for general waste and recyclable waste across our 150-acre site, but rely on our visitors to responsibly dispose of their waste into the bins. We want to ensure that the Showground is a great place to come and we are sorry if anyone’s experience of the fireworks was hampered by litter.”
