Some pant collectors can be a pain – particularly when they hang around, using their Jedi mind tricks to will you to drink that last gulp of beer so they can take the bottle or can back to the supermarket to claim the deposit (pant). 

But at Copenhagen's Distortion festival, it is the collectors who are being unfairly harassed by drunken festival-goers, according to organisers who have come up with a scheme that will hopefully reduce the amount of abuse they are subjected to.

In less than two weeks, Distortion will once again take over the city's streets and turn the city upside down, but this time it will provide 100 red vests for pant collectors, which explain: 'At samle pant er mit arbejde' (collecting pant is my job). It should make the collectors who wear them easier to identify – bleary eyed, in the early hours of the morning.

Everyone is welcome
"The help shelter Grace made us aware that pant collectors were being yelled at and treated with disrespect," Morten Stinus Kristensen, who is responsible for cleaning-up operations after Distortion, told Metroxpress.

"We want to show people that they are just as welcome as everyone else."

Feel like picking up cans?
Everyone can make a few bucks collecting bottles and beer cans, and you don't need to wear the vest to be considered a 'real' collector.

From June 4 to 8, Distortion will visit the streets of Nørrebro and Vesterbro before ending proceedings with a harbour party at Refshaleøen.