The story in a nutshell

In 2000 I was at my first festival. Since then I have attended festivals around the world. The wanderlust for festivals that lives within me never stopped.

In 2011 at one of the festivals my old-time loyal camping chair broke and I couldn’t find a new one anywhere, 30k people from all over the world, dozens of shops, I realised I can get anything I want but not what I need!

With that problem in mind I continued my festival visit with no chair. At the end of the festival I found more camping chairs I could ever use and a pile of other camping equipment which was left behind by ⅓ of the visitors. Another problem came into my mind, that this abandoned camping equipment, which are mostly in good, almost new condition will land in the landfill as trash. It was a shock to learn how much there is and even more it’s how a festival deals with it, how? Big machines flatten everything and pile it up and to the bin.

How an idea becomes a mission

In 2012, A friend and I took a minivan, drove to Tomorrowland festival in Belgium, waited until the very end and started gathering abandoned camping equipment. We found everything from everything mostly in good to new condition.
We took what we could and headed to the next festival, sitting at the entrance of the festival we where sold out before the actual start, so at the end we gathered more and went to the next festival, same story.
With such great demand, selling the equipment would leave us with no stock but still with lots of camping gear left behind, the system needed a change. Since then we continue gathering and reusing what we have, we now rent the equipment so it wouldn’t stay as trash, again!

Utopia Camping today

Today, Utopia Camping Solutions rent out a wide range of camping equipment at festivals around Europe. Our customers can easily book the gear they need through our online reservation system. We have a big warehouse in Berlin from which we bring all the necessary gear to the festivals and deliver it to our customers on-site. Meeting the people and helping them in any possible way with their camping gear is what we enjoy most. We are continuously trying to improve our business to provide even better services and make life at festivals more sustainable.

We gather what’s left

Utopia Camping has a team to scour festival grounds and rescue left behind items from the trash.
If you need extra cash, you can help us and earn on the way, come and talk with us at our shop in the festival or contact us here.

We think of the environment

Utopia Camping repairs, clean, and packages gear using as many recycled and eco-friendly products as possible. We support social initiatives by donating gear we don’t use anymore to those in need. Material no longer matching our standards will be given to factories or local businesses for reuse.

We care for our gear

We sew, clean, repair and match everything to offer you the best quality possible. When you take good care of the rented gear you can help us reusing it for many years to come.

We rent second-hand gear

Second-hand can be good as new and we are here to prove it. Our equipment is what you have seen left behind after your last festival.

We buy and trade

If, after a festival, you don’t need your own gear anymore, we will buy reusable items from you or trade them.

How the mission creates new ideas

From all we saved from landfills there are still items which could not be repaired or reused.
To prevent the waste of potentially useful materials we take the opportunity to upcycle trash. As we are constantly developing and creating sustainable solutions, we collaborate with designers to turn trash into a new product. That is how Utopia Up was created a sustainable brand producing products our of camping “waste”

We are constantly developing new and creative solutions to tackle the waste at festivals if you have a good idea, let’s talk.