Man flees 'toxic' Leeds Festival fearing something would go 'horribly wrong'
30.08.2022 - 17:55
/ manchestereveningnews.co.uk
A man has spoken out about the "toxic" atmosphere at Leeds Festival after witnessing scores of people setting fire to tents during the final night of the event.
Jack Haines said he and his pals saw 'several out of control fires' after returning to their camp having watched Arctic Monkeys play - prompting them to flee the festival early.
He says the behaviour has put him off ever returning, with the chaos also causing others to leave the site early. Many festival goers have reported scary experiences, with videos showing tents on fire and people's belongings being trashed.
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Jack, a local councillor in Hull, said that, from around 12.30am, the camps "started to deteriorate" with the atmosphere dampening an otherwise fun festival, HullLive reports.
He said: "I went to Leeds Fest for the first time when I was at Uni and had a great time there so when it came around again post-Covid, me and a small group of mates thought we’d go along again this year.
"The weather was perfect the whole time, same for the experience, and there was a really good atmosphere for the majority of the time there. That was prior to the last evening.
"We stayed right out in brown camp about a 20 minute walk from the arena itself, so a fair walk away through most other camps. We’d just finished watching Arctic Monkeys and grabbing something to eat and it was about 12am at this point.
"On the walk back it was clear the whole atmosphere had swiftly shifted on to something more toxic. We saw several out-of-control fires and heard people saying that they just 'wanted to set a tent on fire'.
"By the time we’d reached our site we thought we’d relax a bit before going