After the festival

Source A: an original contemporary non-fiction-style account.

I returned to the festival field on Monday morning to collect equipment for a friend. The music had ended the night before. From the road, the field appeared almost empty, but the gate revealed what distance had concealed: flattened grass, abandoned cups and the dark rectangles where stalls had stood. A few workers were already moving between the remaining structures. I had spent Saturday admiring the lights and complaining about the queue for food. Now the field offered a different programme.

The stage stood with its mouth open and nothing left to say. Cables sprawled across the boards like roots pulled from their soil. Beyond it, a torn banner worried at its fastening, repeating a small frantic movement to an audience of empty chairs. The wind moved easily where crowds had blocked it two days earlier. Without music, every ordinary noise seemed promoted: the scrape of a crate, a dropped bolt, the brief metallic cough of a van refusing to start.

Then a crew arrived with gloves, sacks and the brisk purpose of people who knew where to begin. Rubbish was gathered into islands, then lifted away. The chairs folded themselves into obedient stacks under practised hands. One worker found a child's shoe and placed it on a table rather than in a sack. Gradually the field emerged from beneath the evidence of our pleasure. It was not returning to innocence; the trampled patches and muddy routes remained. But its ordinary shape was becoming legible again.

My friend counted the returned boxes and checked the straps on the van. I asked how long the clearing would take. She said longer than most visitors imagined, and shorter if everyone took their things home. The answer contained no grand accusation. It was a statement about hours of work. Driving away, I passed the large sign thanking us for making the weekend special. Behind it, someone was collecting the cable ties used to hold the sign in place.

Refer only to the second and third paragraphs of Source A. Analyse how the writer uses language to present the field after the festival and the work of clearing it. Support your answer with evidence from these paragraphs.