I did a treasure hunt through people’s Reading festival rubbish… I found cash, a phone, a Prada bag & a ‘gold dust’ item

A MAN who did a treasure hunt through the rubbish left by people after the Reading Festival has revealed his impressive haul.

It’s not the first time Ethan has trawled through the extraordinary amount of trash left by festival-goers.

Last year he collected enough bits to make him £50 at a local boot sale.

So he was hoping for an equally successful hunt at the 2024 festival.

Ethan documented the experience in a video on his TikTok page, as he began: “Reading Festival finished yesterday – let’s go and see what we can find!”

Ready, steady, hunt!

And things started off well, as the first thing Ethan came across – nestled in the grass – was a £10 note.

“No way, we got a tenner!” he exclaimed.

Next up was a solar power bank, a brand new barbecue, another power bank and a Prada bag.

Ethan decided to see if anything was inside the bag, and found several pound coins as he tipped it out.

There were also loads of camping bits that had been left by festival-goers, including full tents, a new groundsheet and even some camping chairs.

And it was a Voyager number Ethan was most impressed with, as he said: “A brand new Voyager camping chair – this is like gold dust at this festival!”

There were also some items that weren’t so covetable, including someone’s retainers, a Top Golf membership and a copy of the New Testament.

But Ethan’s biggest find was undoubtedly the iPhone he stumbled across towards the end of his treasure hunt.

Doing the right thing

“Of course we’re not going to keep this,” he said.

“I’m going to go and hand this into Security because we’ve got to do the right thing!”

Speaking to Fabulous Online, Ethan explained that he didn’t keep anything he found, apart from the £10 note and the coins.

“Might get myself a Maccies on the way home!” he concluded.

The comments section was immediately filled with people weighing in on Ethan’s treasure hunt, with many of them left baffled as to why campers would leave so much of their stuff.

“I just don’t understand…… how can they leave all that ..” one questioned.

As another replied: “You just wanna get HOME!”

“The I’m to lazy to clean my s**t up generation,” a third raged.

“In my experience they’re young, spoilt and lazy and mum and dad will buy them new stuff to replace all the crap they left,” someone else said.

Might get myself a Maccies on the way home!

Ethan after his festival haul

To which another hit back: “Obviously too much money to spend!

“My kids have been to festivals if they didn’t come back with all the stuff they went with they would be off to buy a load of new stuff to replace it!”

“I think I might go to reading festival just for the aftermath treasure hunting,” someone else admitted.

‘So much wasted money’

“The amount of stuff I’d take doing this, get myself a whole new camping set up!” another wrote.

“I feel for the person who lost the retainers – £200 for a new set!” someone pointed out.

As another said: “The wasted camping equipment breaks my heart.

“So much wasted money!!”

“So much of this could easily be donated!” someone else pointed out.

“It needs to be a thing after concerts.”