Glastonbury Festival’s loos are sometimes dreaded by newbies attending the five-day music extravaganza, but a former toilet cleaner has given some crucial tips on the best time to use them
The Glastonbury Festival toilets are perhaps the most unsavoury part of the camping experience – and with the exciting summertime event looming many will be busy getting all the essentials ready for next week when the festival begins on June 25.
Over 200,000 festival goers will be at the huge summer music event – and it goes without saying that all of these people will be using the loos regularly during the five-day festival. Now, a former Glastonbury volunteer has revealed secrets of the legendary Glasto loos, including the best time to use them.
Speaking to Cult Beauty, the Glastonbury toilet cleaner who’s volunteered at the festival in previous years, has shared the best and the worst times to head to the loos. The insight from the former cleaner has even highlighted how often and when they are cleaned.
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Glastonbury is the largest music festival in the UK, with more than 210,000 party people set to head to the depths of Somerset for a fun time – and if you’re headed there next week you can now go armed with inside information on when is best to head to the loos.
The former volunteer has also given tips on how to potentially avoid long queues at the loos, however, the timing and location of avoiding the masses can sometimes also mean a less clean toilet. The festival will run from June 25 – 29, so follow these Glastonbury hacks for a cleaner and potentially less busy toilet queue experience at the festival.
Speaking to beauty specialist Cult Beauty, the former volunteer said: “At Glastonbury the toilets at campsites are frequently cleaned between 6am-12am, and are split into 6 hour shifts, 6am-12pm, 12pm-6pm and 6pm-12am, meaning the last time campsite toilets get cleaned everyday is at midnight. However, in certain areas like Shangri La the toilets get cleaned through the early hours of the morning.”
The former loo cleaner also said the “best toilets” to visit at Glastonbury are the loos beside the Pyramid Stage (main music stage). This is because “despite them being busier” more volunteers are at hand to keep them cleaner, due to the prominent location on the festival site.
The former cleaner added that people should “definitely opt for using the compostable toilets over the long drops, as they’re typically much easier to keep clean”.
When it comes to the ones to avoid, the volunteer said: “The worst ones I would say are the ones that are further out around the outskirts of the site, as they can sometimes be difficult to find and aren’t cleaned as often, however, they also aren’t used as frequently.”
The ‘best toilets and showers’ can be found in the paid accommodation campsites like Worthy View, the cleaner added. These are cleaned by a separate external company, but it can be costly – and actually you may be missing out on the true festival experience by heading to a separate area, some would say.
On the main Glastonbury site, the “best and quietest time to use the toilets is 12am because most of the big acts have finished, although the festival is still busy”, the cleaner said. The loos may well be in “really good condition” at that time as they will have had “18 hours of cleaning throughout the day”.
And there’s a few more final loo tips from the former volunteer, the advice is “don’t go to the campsite toilets just after an act has finished their set”. This is because the toilets will be “absolutely packed” and will get “a lot of use” during this time.
The volunteer added: “Finally, don’t go first thing in the morning before 6am as no one will have been on shift to upkeep them since 12am, and the first time they’ll be getting cleaned is 6am. Try to wait around till about 7am once they’ve been cleaned but before the big queues start!”