If you’re wearing your festival wristband.. it’s time to cut it off

 

Okay lads, Electric Picnic is now over.

And while we love to talk about it for months after and proclaim how we knew that band before anyone else did, some people seem to wear their wristbands for years after as if to say, if you're not wearing your festival band two years after the gig, did you even really go? If this sounds like one of your friends, you may want to watch the video below, because if nagging and remarks won't make them cut it off, maybe science will. Australian radio show Triple J asked their listeners to send in their festival bands for a scientific experiment. Hosts Lewis and Veronica then met up with microbiologist Nick Coleman to examine some long-worn wristbands. Their listener Daniel sent in bands from festivals in 2009, 2010 and 2016 and Veronica handing in one she had been wearing for about an hour, for comparison. The bacteria was separated from the wristbands and put into dishes for several days. The result after three days showed there was a huge amount of bacteria on each of the wristbands. Dr. Coleman found mostly light yellow and white bacteria which he says aren't too harmful to your heath, but then he points to some orange bacteria which he says could be golden staph, this can cause wound infections, boils and food poisoning among other things. Even the wristband worn for only an hour had bacteria on it, and while it wasn't as harmful as the one above, it does show just how quickly bacteria can grow. Dr. Coleman concludes that while he can't say for sure that they are all dangerous bacteria, the numbers are so high that he would "advise people against doing this and wearing them for years and years and years." "Cut it off put it in a little scrapbook or something, you don't need to keep wearing it to have the memories" he says. So if potential food poisoning doesn't scare you off wearing them, we're not sure what will. So long pretty orange wristband, until next year.