Festival Toilet Hire — Planning Sanitation for Outdoor Events

Toilets are a common reason event licence applications come back for changes. Get the numbers right first time. Then you save weeks of back-and-forth with your local authority, because there is nothing to resubmit.

How Many Toilets Do You Actually Need

Most UK licensing officers work from a standard benchmark. It is 1 toilet per 100 attendees for events under 5,000 people. The female-to-male ratio is roughly 3:1, because women queue longer and need more units. For events over 5,000, the ratio tightens to 1 per 75-90 attendees.

For example, take a 2,000-person day festival. Here is how the numbers work:

• 20 units minimum under the 1:100 rule
• Split roughly 12 female-designated, 6 male-designated plus urinals, 2 accessible
• If alcohol is served, add 15-20% capacity. Drinking increases both usage frequency and queue times

For multi-day camping festivals, add welfare units (toilet, wash basin, sometimes a shower) at 1 per 10-15 campers. Add them on top of the day-visitor toilet count. Camping crowds use facilities around the clock, not just during show hours. So this isn’t optional.

Standard Units vs Urinals vs Trailers

Don’t quote a single toilet type across the whole event. Mixing formats gets people through faster and controls cost. Here are the main options:

• Standard portable toilets (from £45-75 for a weekend hire) cover general day-visitor need. They are the cheapest way to hit your headcount ratio.
• Urinal units (from £40-60/weekend) dramatically speed up male queue times at a lower cost per user than standard cubicles. Add these alongside standard units, not instead of them.
• Luxury or VIP trailers (from £350-450/weekend for a 1+1 trailer, £550-895/weekend for larger 2+1 or 3+1 trailers) suit VIP areas, backstage, or ticketed hospitality zones. Guests there expect flushing toilets, running water and mirrors.
• Disabled-access units (from £65-95/weekend) are a legal requirement, not an optional extra. See below.

What Licensing Officers Actually Check

You might send an event plan under the Licensing Act 2003. Or you might apply for a Temporary Event Notice. Either way, officers check the toilet section as well as crowd safety and fire access. They typically look for:

• A toilet count matching your declared capacity, not a rounded-down estimate
• At least one accessible unit per every 10 standard units, minimum one on any site regardless of size
• Handwashing provision next to every toilet block, not just at a central point
• A servicing schedule for multi-day events: who empties units, how often, and where the waste tanker can access
• Toilet blocks positioned away from food vendors and at safe distance from watercourses, per Environment Agency guidance

Build these into your site plan drawing, not just a written description. Officers respond faster to a marked-up map than to a paragraph of prose, since a map is quicker to check.

Timing Your Booking

Book 8-12 weeks out for anything over 1,000 attendees. Summer weekends (June-August) are the busiest time in the UK hire year. We allocate units, delivery vehicles and crew on a first-confirmed basis, not first-enquired. If your event falls on a bank holiday weekend, push that booking window to 12-16 weeks.

For smaller private or community events under 500 people, 3-4 weeks is usually enough. However, you lose a choice of unit type if you leave it later than that.

Delivery and Site Access

Give your supplier real access information up front. Include the ground type (grass, hardstanding, slope), the vehicle access width, and whether delivery has to happen before or after gates open. A muddy field after rain can delay a simple drop-off, although a warned crew can plan for it. Confirm a delivery slot at least 24 hours before gates open. Then the crew can check, level and stock the units before the public arrives.

Getting a Quote

Send us your attendee numbers, event dates and site type. We’ll size the sanitation plan for you, with unit mix, quantities and pricing shown up front. There is no quote-gating.

Use our online quote form. Then expect confirmation within 30 minutes, Monday to Saturday.

Where we deliver

We supply units across the UK. For example, see our pages for portaloo hire in London, portaloo hire in Manchester, portaloo hire in Havering, portaloo hire in Camden and portaloo hire in Liverpool. Each page explains local delivery and gives a clear price guide.

Also, compare urinal hire with festival toilet hire before you book. Then send us your details through the online quote form and we will reply within 30 minutes, Monday to Saturday.