A cleaner, greener festival experience
When speaking of festivals, it is never long before the subject of toilets comes up. While you can choose the acts you want to see and pick the food you are most willing to stand in endless lines for, using the toilets is an unavoidable experience for every guest. But does this have to result in the all too familiar horror stories?
- Type of project: Large scale festivals and events
- Challenges: Creating a positive user experience with toilets in heavy use. Standard water flushing toilets puts huge demands on water supply and sewage handling. Finding an environmentally sound alternative.
- Jets® solution: Reducing the water consumption by up to 90%, using air instead of water, while keeping a high standard. The environmental impact is significantly diminished through less use of water less waste.
Countless listicles online put toilet facilities high on the list of crucial success factors for festival organisers. One such piece warns the festival goer: “By 6 p.m., these poor, well-used toilets just baking in the sun smells absolutely terrible. And you have no other choice but to use them.” Another says, “I imagine the toilets in hell are actually porta potties.”
Now imagine that moment when you just can’t hold it anymore and you arrive to find rows of clean, water flushing, real toilets. Heaven!
Sweden Rock Festival
A festival that has taken on board the need for better facilities, is the Sweden Rock Festival. As Sweden’s number one rock music festival, it attracts 33.000 visitors each year.
“We want them to have a great time, and the toilets are a crucial part of the experience,” explains Pelle Åberg, production manager for Sweden Rock Festival. "The toilet system is more important than the sound system!” he laughs. “We want to make the toilet area as nice and as clean as possible. With the Jets® vacuum system with water flushing toilets, it is possible to do just that.”
“The toilet system is more important than the sound system!”
- Pelle Åberg, Production Manager, Sweden Rock Festival
Minimising environmental impact
“We also try to make our festival as green as possible. Our responsibility is not just to our bands and our guests, but to leave the festival site in a good condition and to try to minimise our environmental impact. Water saving vacuum toilets are a great way to cut down on water consumption and sewage handling and this helps us achieve that goal.” adds Pelle Åberg.
Sweden Rock Festival provides 300 water flushing vacuum toilets for their guests. Frederic Olsson, the owner and manager of Several AB, one of Sweden’s largest portable restroom rental companies, tells us more: “The water was always a problem. We used to have to build huge tanks to hold water for flushing the toilets. Using the Jets® vacuum system, the water consumption is reduced by 2.3 million litres over the four days of the festival.”
Dutch company Sanitrax manufactures portable restroom solutions for rental companies such as Several AB.
Owner and manager Marcel Bikker, explains why they chose the Jets® vacuum solutions for their high-end event restrooms: “Having travelled the world and visited many festivals, the clear feedback is that people are absolutely willing to pay a premium for better toilet facilities. I believe people are becoming more critical and have higher expectations of the services. We chose Jets® because they are a stable supplier that can support us not only at the time of the sale, but throughout the product life cycle. This gives our customers great confidence in the quality of the product.”
A smarter solution
Vacuum toilets use air instead of water to transport sewage.
- Significantly reduces water usage
- The airflow vents away odours and dramatically reduces the risk of spreading airborne and waterborne pathogens.
- The plumbing is more flexible, with vertical lift capability.
- Logistical costs for water transport and sewage handling are lower, and a significant reduction in man hours saves organisers time and money.
This new and smarter approach to mobile sanitation is made possible by a range of robust and reliable Jets Vacuumarator® pumps.
Malakoff rock festival
Another festival where music fans can enjoy a cleaner, more pleasant toilet experience is Malakoff in Norway. "Toilet solution with technology by JETS at Hareid. This is what festival toilets should be like!" is how the Malakoff website describes their facilities.