August 8, 2013Dear Sir,I am finally getting around to writing a letter with regard to the Cup Match festivities which took place at Horseshoe Bay Beach on Thursday, August 1st. If you had received my letter earlier, you would have had to severely edit it as I was so angry.I am one of many who packed enough to go camping for a week — tents, barbecue, food, drinks, coolers, chairs, etc. One always likes to be prepared for such events as you never know who might stop by to say hello! I always look forward to this event, albeit a bit of rebellion on my part this year because of Chewstick’s decision to move Beach Fest to Snorkel Park.In fact, half of Bermuda had done the exact same thing and the beach was mobbed with locals who like to join in the festivities of Emancipation Day. Tents were everywhere and it looked to be a great day for water and fun! We set up right in front of a large group of barely 18-year-olds ... who, I might add, were already taking shots from a vodka bottle at 11 o’clock in the morning!Around noon, the beach was buzzing. Our group of vodka drinkers was growing and one girl had already had her fill. She attempted to put a Corona bottle to her mouth to no avail and dropped it to the ground before passing out. A friend of hers passed out shortly after, throwing up over his arm ... he was out cold for about three hours! Fun times, eh?This was nothing compared to the disgust I felt shortly after when I watched a young child no more than ten years old stumble to my tent and hang on, catching his wind before stumbling to the next tent pole ... drunk. At ten years old, do you know where your child is and who he is with? Do you know what he is doing? Someone from my tent had also watched a young man in his 20s pour a dark and stormy into a cup and hand it to a young boy of about 10 or 12 — his son maybe? Maybe a cousin or an acquaintance? Either way, it is sickening to know that it was acceptable in his mind to give a minor a drink.My frustration grew when I walked into the water only to be welcomed by plastic cups and empty bottles floating around. Each time we went into the water, my friends and I walked out with half a dozen bottles or more as others either walked past or swam among the filth, not realising what they were doing to this beach — the beach that was voted one of the most beautiful beaches in the world (www.businessinsider.com). A walk along the beach was interrupted by having to pick up even more bottles and I hadn’t enough hands to catch and throw the bottles up the beach before they drifted into the ocean again.If alcohol is the reason your brain doesn’t work, then you shouldn’t drink! Are you so lazy that you can’t hold on to your empty cup or bottle until you get to a trash bin? I must say that the trash cans supplied by the Parks Department were few and far between, but that is no excuse for people to litter and expect that someone is going to pick up after you. Where were you brought up? What kind of slobs are you who think it is okay to just discard your trash on a beautiful beach!Supposedly (and I can only go by hearsay) the next morning the Parks Department had already collected over 500 black trash bags of rubbish and there was still more work to be done. If you can believe it, they even found a full-size grill just buried under the sand. Such words as ‘idiotic’, stupid’ and ‘brazen’ are mild compared to other stronger words that I could use.The bottom line here is that Bermuda is a beautiful island. No one should litter, let alone take for granted the fact that someone is going to come along and pick up after you ... even though some environmentally-conscious souls did!I hope that this is read by some of those brain-dead people out there who decided not to use a trash bag. I also hope that this is read by those parents who allowed their under-aged children to go to the beach and get totally inebriated, knowing full well what happens at Horseshoe Bay Beach on the first day of Cup Match. If the Parks Department and the police read this, I hope that this will serve as a wake-up call to ban all use of coolers, grills and the likes from future events without fully managing the area.A few well-placed signs warning of the consequences of littering would also not go amiss. This law is not currently enforced but definitely should be, especially in a place as beautiful as Horseshoe Beach.ASHAMED AND DISGUSTED BERMUDIAN