How to survive Glastonbury Festival WaterAid-style
Festival season is upon us and that means fun, freedom and funky smelling toilets – or does it? After quarter of a century of partnership with Glastonbury Festival and a presence at five other festivals, WaterAid has learnt a trick or two to about not only surviving but also thriving! From toilets and periods, to water and meeting points – we have it covered!
- If your greatest festival fear is braving the bogs, WaterAid’s team of plucky Loo Crew volunteers aim to change your mind about festival loos by keeping them clean. Women can transform their festival experience with a visit to WaterAid’s revolutionary female urinals where users are given funnels. Clean, safe and run by female volunteers means no more hovering precariously over a dubious toilet seat when needing a pee. As an extra bonus, there will be mirrors and biodegradable glitter available. For the first time this year, there will also be a few specially designed private cubicles near the Pyramid Stage to meet women’s needs, with sanitary disposal facilities, water for washing, a shelf, hook and extra space.
- If you are on your period, it doesn’t need to be a cause for concern. WaterAid will have a supply of free natural and environmentally friendly tampons and pads for women who are caught short, before they get the chance to stock up their supply from the onsite shops. Women will also have a chance to sign up to WaterAid’s latest subscription service Fempowered and get a monthly pack of organic, chemical, plastic free, biodegradable period products delivered to their door while also supporting WaterAid’s work with women and girls worldwide.
- Glastonbury has now banned the sale of single-use plastic bottles and is encouraging people to bring and use refillable bottles. Late nights and partying can take a toll on the body, and fingers crossed it will be sunny, but it’ll still be easy to stay hydrated at Glastonbury – just take a trip to one of WaterAid’s water refill stations to top up or buy a bottle at one of WaterAid’s kiosks if you’ve left home without one. If queuing to get on site, there will also be volunteers on hand with water jet backpacks providing a dose of H2O.
- Do you keep losing your friends? Fear not – WaterAid’s Big Tap will provide the perfect place to meet. A short walk from the Pyramid Stage and towering above the height of a double decker bus, it will not be easy to miss, and there’s also water-themed seating to rest those tired legs.
- Keep your mind active, discussions open and do your bit to make a difference in the world by finding out more about WaterAid’s Access Denied campaign and its work to bring clean water and decent toilets to all.
WaterAid Special Events Projects Manager Sian Lamprey said:
“We love festival season here at WaterAid and we have more than 600 volunteers at Glastonbury alone this year ready and willing to take up the challenge of cleaning over 2,600 loos onsite, keeping the hand sanitiser topped up, keeping festivalgoers hydrated, selling reusable water bottles and running the female urinals.
“We have all experienced that toilet panic moment and the desperate need to drink water after jumping about to music – it’s a daily reality for millions of people around the world. And so our other role at the festivals is to raise awareness of WaterAid’s work to change these injustices and gather support for those who are denied access to these human rights.”
WaterAid is present at Glastonbury, Latitude, Camp Bestival, Boomtown Fair, Green Man and Shambala to share the joy that is clean toilets, running clean water, natural organic and biodegradable period products, mirrors and refillable water bottles.
ENDS
For more information, please contact:
Laura Crowley, PR manager, [email protected]
or +44 (0)207 793 4965, or +44 (0)207 793 4485.
Or call our after-hours press line on +44 (0)7887 521 552
or email [email protected].
Notes to Editors:
WaterAid
WaterAid is working to make clean water, decent toilets and good hygiene normal for everyone, everywhere within a generation. The international not-for-profit organisation works in 28 countries to change the lives of the poorest and most marginalised people. Since 1981, WaterAid has reached 26.4 million people with clean water and 26.3 million people with decent toilets. For more information, visit www.wateraid.org/uk, follow @wateraid or @WaterAidPress on Twitter, or find WaterAid UK on Facebook at www.facebook.com/wateraid.
- 844 million people in the world – one in nine – do not have clean water close to home.[1]
- 2.3 billion people in the world – almost one in three – do not have a decent toilet of their own.[2]
- Around 310,000 children under five die every year from diarrhoeal diseases caused by poor water and sanitation. That's almost 800 children a day, or one child every two minutes.[3]
- Every £1 invested in water and toilets returns an average of £4 in increased productivity.[4]
- Just £15 can provide one person with clean water.[5]
- To find out if countries are keeping their promises on water and sanitation, see the online database www.WASHwatch.org
[1] WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme (JMP) Progress on drinking water, sanitation and hygiene: 2017 update and SDG Baselines
[2] WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme (JMP) Progress on drinking water, sanitation and hygiene: 2017 update and SDG Baselines
[3] washwatch.org
[4] World Health organization (2012) Global costs and benefits of drinking-water supply and sanitation interventions to reach the MDG target and universal coverage
[5] www.wateraid.org
