We had visited many Psytrance Festivals around Europe in the last years
and it was always quite an experience to go to different styles of toilets during the summer festival season.
Sometimes we were happy , sometimes we were shocked and sometimes it was an mind blowing experience. So we thought it was worth some words here on chaishop.com! This is what we find out so far!
If you have ever had to use a sanitary installation in the midst of summer at high temperatures at one of our festivals you probably found yourself within one of the following categories. It doesn’t matter if it was a hundred, thousand or ten thousand people event, this topic is always prevails. Organizers as well as visitors should give this issue some thought and come up with ecological, economic and foremost sustainable solutions and behavior.
Floordixies, Urinals and all-inclusive toilets
These are the toilets and urinals which are free to use for all attendants and are included in your entrance fee. On a hot day these toilets can normally be sensed from a far distance by a pungent stench from festering feces and urine which clings onto your nose. The following procedure is a game of Russian roulette. Open the door, risk a look inside, asking yourself the question if it is acceptable and what kind of message your predecessor might have left for you. This is the most demanding form of sanitary usage as you mostly never know when these toilets were swept the last time, how likely you are to carry away some sort of bacterial infection and if the experience in general is going to scar you for life. At the least it will be an acrobatic performance on your side.
1 Euro Dixies
These are the toilets which have illuminated pathways leading to them and where service staff is always concerned about your bodily needs. The question how often and how much you want to use these installations is up to your discretion. You will need to have 1 Euro at your disposal for every go but at least they provide you with liquid soap and paper towels to wash your hands.
Flat-rate for 10 Euros
If you buy yourself this option you will not only have another, likely ugly, wristband on our arm but have also entitled yourself for the ultimate sanitary experience which you may use whenever your body feels the urge to do so. Unfortunately these utilities tend to be a little further away from the main floors and there is still a chance that you might need to queue up in a line.
50 Euros for your personal Dixie
This form of sanitary installment is pure luxury for any festival attendant. This is highly recommended for group travelers or anyone who is highly concerned with their personal call of nature well before the beginning of the festival. One should however consider the costs and the economy as well as providing a padlock. Otherwise you might be in for some strange encounters on your private toilet.
Forest & Fence Party
The way to go for all those weekend hippies, nature fetishists and pile shitters who won’t or can’t afford any of the other options above who cover up their leavings with natural toilet paper. This is a great nuisance or straight offensive to the organizers, forest rangers or any nature enthusiast after the festival event as there is mostly no other feasible way of disposal other than wait for nature to do its decomposing work.
As for the fence pissers they are to be considered highly unpleasant and even aggravating for anyone who had to choose a camp site nearby or even for the female faction of visitors who are not able to dispose themselves from their urges in such an impudent manner.
Caravan & Camper van visitors
As happy as they can be in their own mobile homes they are not concerned with any of the problems above. They remain to hope that their toilet doesn’t clog up and that they didn’t overestimate the volume of the disposal tank. However if one of these things does happen where would they dispose their filled up tank?
The cleaners
The toilet and cleaner staff have a central role in the whole issue. It is important to meet them with respect, gratefulness and dignity as it is them who care for our disposals in a professional manner. If staff is present they are most always friendly and helpful although a bigger banknote might cause a little trouble but you will always be able to wash and dry your hands with paper towels or obtain new toilet paper. During rush hours you may have to wait in line to satisfy your urges. Commonly a cloud of diverse unpleasant odors announces when the cleaning crew arrives or leaves with a disposal truck as there is often no other public schedule available for the attentive visitor. Often these cleaning crews have to deal with blocked roadways just making their job a little more annoying.
Compost Toilets
This form of having a pee or do some more serious business is getting more and more into the mind of people, organizers and big Psytrancefestivals like Modem Festival in Croatia,BoomFestival in Portugal or Hadra in France, who know how to solve this problem and to know what to do with all that ecological human rest. A big respect to all of them for such an important, environmental and clean Toilet solution.
Conclusion
If you consider visiting a festival in the future you might want to spend a thought on how you plan to meet your sanitary needs. Some hygienists should definitely plan on spending extra money on top of their ticket price to meet their demands. Organizers as well as visitors should take position on this issue as long as sanitary hygiene is always a key subject for every human being.