Glastonbury Festival Scrutiny Report 2023

[Gnomicide]

16 minutes ago, Alvoram said:

Braver than me, I'm with @stuie on this. You "gotta know when to hold'em, know when to fold'em, know when to walk away and know when to run."

Not about to ruin my festival and ruin it for others by confronting a big group of tanked up blokes for just pissing behind the toilets, especially if they had made the effort to get to the toilets in the first place, only to find them unusable and with unrealistic queues. 

The toilet situation was quite bad last year at times compared to 2022, female in our group had an 'accident' trying to get to a toilet Sunday evening (thankfully we were in fancy dress, so she had spare shorts in her bag...) We always take one of those urinal bottles for emergencies in the middle of the night at our tent. I might carry one around the main festival with me this year. 

To be honest, the whole 'don't pee on the land thing' works both ways. Whilst I'd never piss on the land, if you want everybody to follow that rule, then the toilet situation has to improve, particularly in places like the (above the) Park or SE corner.  

Another thing that makes a mockery of the whole thing is the men's urinals, most of that urine ends up on the floor for us to wade through anyway... plastic tubing around the edge of some tarped fencing is not very effective, especially once it gets blocked up. How about some of these all over the place... 



And their female counterpart (yes I know there is a small area of something similar to these, but there needs to be more, much more, and more spread out across site.) 

 

I came across these urinals at several festivals over the last couple of years, and they work really really well, and would be fairly easy to scale up.

They're tremendous for having a chat to the people sharing them too, 1st there gets to rest their can on the bit in the center.

[Alvoram]

30 minutes ago, Gnomicide said:

They're tremendous for having a chat to the people sharing them too, 1st there gets to rest their can on the bit in the center.

Haha, they are good for a chat, but still very private (not even sure the green / blue screening is needed... Could just be dotted around like those pop up things in London.) 

The ones around in 2021 had sanni dispensers on that bit in the middle, but they'd been removed in 2022, shame as probably still sensible to clean your hands, covid or no covid... But even then, plenty of room on top for beers. Just have to be mindful of the angle... 



(For the record, I'm not some weirdo who goes around taking photos of urinals, I did just download these images, after remembering the names of the hire companies, from their websites!!!) 

Edited January 8 by Alvoram

[incident]

1 hour ago, Alvoram said:

Another thing that makes a mockery of the whole thing is the men's urinals, most of that urine ends up on the floor for us to wade through anyway... plastic tubing around the edge of some tarped fencing is not very effective, especially once it gets blocked up. How about some of these all over the place... 


 

Those can get very full (and very overflowing) very quickly in busy areas. I've seen it at multiple festivals - somewhere like Glastonbury they'd need to be emptied several times a day.

[Alvoram]

2 minutes ago, incident said:

Those can get very full (and very overflowing) very quickly in busy areas. I've seen it at multiple festivals - somewhere like Glastonbury they'd need to be emptied several times a day.

Their website says that they can be stand alone, plumbed together for easy emptying or plumbed into a bigger tank...

So literally just a drag and drop replacement if plumbed onto whatever the piss from the big blue fencing goes  (or is supposed to go) into.... 

The main difference is they won't all be broken and overflowing onto the floor by 7pm on Friday evening... 

[Gnomicide]

8 hours ago, Alvoram said:

For the record, I'm not some weirdo who goes around taking photos of urinals...

😁 I am

 

[CaledonianGonzo]

Don't these just take up more space and have lower throughput than the current troughs?

[stuie]

9 hours ago, Alvoram said:

Haha, they are good for a chat, but still very private (not even sure the green / blue screening is needed... Could just be dotted around like those pop up things in London.) 

The ones around in 2021 had sanni dispensers on that bit in the middle, but they'd been removed in 2022, shame as probably still sensible to clean your hands, covid or no covid... But even then, plenty of room on top for beers. Just have to be mindful of the angle... 



(For the record, I'm not some weirdo who goes around taking photos of urinals, I did just download these images, after remembering the names of the hire companies, from their websites!!!) 

I've been at so many festivals and day events where these just end up full of piss, cans and cups - even though people are trying to do the right thing and piss in the urinal, it's just overflowing all over the floor anyway!

[incident]

1 hour ago, CaledonianGonzo said:

Don't these just take up more space and have lower throughput than the current troughs?

Yes. They'll be easier/quicker to deploy, but that's about the only benefit.

My experience with that type is very negative, and that's across multiple festivals.

[giantkatestacks]

The toilets I have been most impressed by weirdly are at BST Hyde park - I had never seen that set up before and it was very civilised. Takes up a sht ton of space though.

[Alvoram]

2 hours ago, stuie said:

I've been at so many festivals and day events where these just end up full of piss, cans and cups - even though people are trying to do the right thing and piss in the urinal, it's just overflowing all over the floor anyway!

 

2 hours ago, incident said:

Yes. They'll be easier/quicker to deploy, but that's about the only benefit.

My experience with that type is very negative, and that's across multiple festivals.

Yeh, I've never seen them in 'plumbed together' mode myself, but then I've never seen one overflowing either, so it obviously wasn't necessary at the festivals where I've seen them used. (From memory I've seen them at Splendour and multiple little one day events like 90s fests.) It clearly would be necessary to plumb them together or into a larger tank at Glastonbury (or any other 100k+ festival.) 

Whatever the answer is, it's not the current solution... It just makes a mockery of the whole don't pee on the land thing when you walk into a urinal to see them all overflowing on to the land. 

The problem isn't the storage capacity, the problem is those tiny troughs they currently use. They either get full of crap and blocked up, or they get knocked and end up at the wrong angle and overflowing. Clearly that pee is supposed to go somewhere, a big holding tank I presume. With a better urinal design, be it these or another solution, that same holding tank could still be used. 

[compactdisc]

3 hours ago, Alvoram said:

The problem isn't the storage capacity, the problem is those tiny troughs they currently use. They either get full of crap and blocked up, or they get knocked and end up at the wrong angle and overflowing. Clearly that pee is supposed to go somewhere, a big holding tank I presume. With a better urinal design, be it these or another solution, that same holding tank could still be used. 

I would say they're pretty effective. I very rarely see one that is broken or overflowing, and the new guarding thing they've had in them in recent years has stopped the old issue of cups/cans blocking the pipes. If it ain't broke, don't fix it!

[Crazyfool01]

in terms of time and motion and through traffic I bet those blue sheeted urinals are the most effective for through traffic , my only gripe is in some places they are a bit small and my common complaint is the lack of trough on the one wall . 

[Skip997]

1 minute ago, Crazyfool01 said:

in terms of time and motion and through traffic I bet those blue sheeted urinals are the most effective for through traffic , my only gripe is in some places they are a bit small and my common complaint is the lack of trough on the one wall . 

I'm broadly in agreement with this.

However, the main problem is idiots who don't know where to pee, who think it's a good idea to put rubbish in the urinals etc

[Crazyfool01]

Just now, Skip997 said:

I'm broadly in agreement with this.

However, the main problem is idiots who don't know where to pee, who think it's a good idea to put rubbish in the urinals etc

not sure thatll ever totally be solved although the chicken wire does seem to help , and they seem to be cleared of rubbish much more frequently these days 

[stuie]

3 minutes ago, Crazyfool01 said:

not sure thatll ever totally be solved although the chicken wire does seem to help , and they seem to be cleared of rubbish much more frequently these days 

Maybe some bins in the middle would help?  If people have somewhere else to put the cups and cans they may not end up in the urinal. 

 

[Crazyfool01]

4 minutes ago, stuie said:

Maybe some bins in the middle would help?  If people have somewhere else to put the cups and cans they may not end up in the urinal. 

 

or some bin holes in the sheeting ?  Thanks to the wateraid folks that clean these . 

Edited January 9 by Crazyfool01

[Skip997]

6 minutes ago, stuie said:

Maybe some bins in the middle would help?  If people have somewhere else to put the cups and cans they may not end up in the urinal. 

 

People would piss in the bins instead of waiting their turn for the urinals.

[stuie]

4 minutes ago, Skip997 said:

People would piss in the bins instead of waiting their turn for the urinals.

Yep you're probably right and that's why they don't put them there.

Dirty boys! 

[incident]

This should be obvious, but anyone dumping their rubbish in a urinal is an absolute scrote.

Firstly some poor sod has to pick it out, then it still goes up to the Recycling Centre where someone sorting the waste finds their already unpleasant volunteer job even less pleasant. Don't f**king do it.

[Popsider75]

Basically boils down to the fact a lot of our fellow humans are complete uncivilised nobs who dont give a monkeys about anyone but themselves.

I have seen those banks of urinals work quite well elsewhere- Bearded Theory had plenty of those last year.

 

 

 

[giantkatestacks]

59 minutes ago, incident said:

This should be obvious, but anyone dumping their rubbish in a urinal is an absolute scrote.

Firstly some poor sod has to pick it out, then it still goes up to the Recycling Centre where someone sorting the waste finds their already unpleasant volunteer job even less pleasant. Don't f**king do it.

This. I don't think most people realise that all rubbish on site goes over the conveyer belt sorted by a human. 

[Skip997]

10 minutes ago, giantkatestacks said:

This. I don't think most people realise that all rubbish on site goes over the conveyer belt sorted by a human. 

If if they did plenty wouldn't care

[CaledonianGonzo]

Glastonbury troughs have drainpipes in them to mitigate against that. It doesn't eradicate it, but I'm sure it helps.

[Leyrulion]

18 hours ago, Alvoram said:

Braver than me, I'm with @stuie on this. You "gotta know when to hold'em, know when to fold'em, know when to walk away and know when to run."

Not about to ruin my festival and ruin it for others by confronting a big group of tanked up blokes for just pissing behind the toilets, especially if they had made the effort to get to the toilets in the first place, only to find them unusable and with unrealistic queues. 

The toilet situation was quite bad last year at times compared to 2022, female in our group had an 'accident' trying to get to a toilet Sunday evening (thankfully we were in fancy dress, so she had spare shorts in her bag...) We always take one of those urinal bottles for emergencies in the middle of the night at our tent. I might carry one around the main festival with me this year. 

To be honest, the whole 'don't pee on the land thing' works both ways. Whilst I'd never piss on the land, if you want everybody to follow that rule, then the toilet situation has to improve, particularly in places like the (above the) Park or SE corner.  

Another thing that makes a mockery of the whole thing is the men's urinals, most of that urine ends up on the floor for us to wade through anyway... plastic tubing around the edge of some tarped fencing is not very effective, especially once it gets blocked up. How about some of these all over the place... 



And their female counterpart (yes I know there is a small area of something similar to these, but there needs to be more, much more, and more spread out across site.) 

 

I came across these urinals at several festivals over the last couple of years, and they work really really well, and would be fairly easy to scale up.

The toilet situation is one of the few things Glastonbury does pretty badly on compared to other festivals (with the possible exception Leeds/reading). 

The problem is the scale of it means most solutions are technically complex, take up too much space and would cost a sh*t ton. 

They need more compost toilets and a better system of dedicated toilet attendants. Water aid are great but giving the toilets a wipe down once every couple hours doesn't quite cut it in some areas. 

 

 

[Alvoram]

4 hours ago, compactdisc said:

I would say they're pretty effective. I very rarely see one that is broken or overflowing, and the new guarding thing they've had in them in recent years has stopped the old issue of cups/cans blocking the pipes. If it ain't broke, don't fix it!

Are we at the same festival? 🤣