Typically 18-22 (if we are talking undergraduates, which most fraternities/sororities target). Yes, that isn’t literally “kids”, but at least in the US, adolescence is increasing in extent. I wouldn’t consider most undergraduates to be actual adults – they are more like teenagers*.
Yes, I know techically the 18 and 19 year olds are literally teenagers – but you know what I’m talking about.
Festivals are organized, have a plan, and often a bond/insurance. And they are not usually in national forests.
It does explain how these kids got trained to pull nonsense like this, but really, every one of these people has earned a 10 year ban from national forestland.
So the students were protesting/protesters? Was “Occupy L.A.” held around Lake Shasta? Did the same people who cleaned up after the Occupy L.A. protests also clean up the mess at Lake Shasta? Maybe Lake Shasta was in L.A. (once), and Yahoo and Oregon Live were reporting on the same incident? Are you Percival Dunwoody?
Oh, absolutely they deserve it, and more. At least back in the days of the free festivals in the UK, people who did this would get their asses kicked most likely. I’ve seen cars blocked in by buses & trucks til they went back and picked up their shit.
Burning Man takes a really hard line about that. You’re not allowed to leave anything on the playa, not even biodegradables, specifically including stuff like sawdust, flower petals, and the runoff from your portable shower. Feather boas are specifically not allowed anywhere at Burning Man, because they tend to shed. There’s a large team that scours the desert after the event to remove MOOP (Matter Out Of Place), and if they find any significant amount at the campsite you rented, you can be fined by the Bureau of Land Management and/or permanently banned from the event.