Sizing portable restrooms for a festival off your ticket total will leave you short. Here’s the number you actually use, what Alabama requires, and how we added 13 units two days before a show.
By Ganon Pointer, Business Development Manager, McMichael Waste Services
Here’s what I tell people
Size portable restrooms for a festival to the most people you’ll have on the grounds at once, not your weekend ticket total. If there’s alcohol involved, or it’s pushing 80 degrees, add 20 to 30 percent on top. Then get a service window on the schedule, and ask your provider up front how late you can still add units.
So here’s the rundown before we get into it:
- Size portable restrooms for a festival to peak concurrent attendance, not weekend ticket sales.
- Match that number to your gate hours, because eight hours and fourteen hours are not the same job.
- Add 20 to 30 percent for alcohol or 80-plus-degree heat. It’s one bump, not two.
- Order one handwashing station per 10 units, and more if you have a food court.
- Put a service window on the run of show for anything longer than one day.
- Book early, adjust later. Counts can change. Availability can’t.
You settle most of this before anybody loads a truck. First, you figure out the busiest hour of the busiest day, and you size to that. Next, you decide when the pump truck is coming back. Finally, you talk through what happens if your numbers move.
That last part is where a festival differs from a one-day event. People are still buying tickets after you’ve placed your order.
What number do you size off of?
Start with the most people you’ll have on the grounds at one time. Then match that against how many hours your gates are open that day. That single pair of numbers drives every count for portable restrooms for a festival, and it’s the number that goes into the chart.
Here’s what I mean. Say you’ve got a three-day festival, 9,000 tickets across the weekend, and gates open eight hours a day. On Saturday evening, you’ve got 5,000 people out there at once.
| How you size it | Number you use | PSAI units at 8 hours | What happens |
|---|---|---|---|
| Weekend ticket total | 9,000 | Not a planning number | You never have 9,000 people out there at once |
| Average day | 3,000 | 30 | You’re 20 units short Saturday night |
| Most people at once, Saturday | 5,000 | 50 | Right |
Unit counts come from the Portable Sanitation Association International chart for special events, which sizes by guest count and gate hours. PSAI publishes it free, so pull the chart and run your own numbers before anybody quotes you.
What adjusts the count: alcohol, heat, handwashing, and multi-day
Four things move the baseline count for portable restrooms for a festival after the chart gives you a starting point. Take them in order.
Alcohol or heat
PSAI says to add 20 to 30 percent if it’s going to be 80 degrees or higher, or you’re serving alcohol. Notice it’s “or,” so it’s one adjustment, not two stacked on each other. Our 50 units goes to 60 or 65. In Alabama, between May and September you’re over 80 anyway, so we just plan on it. People stack both bumps and end up paying for units nobody uses, which is the most common over-order I see.
Handwashing stations
Figure about one station per 10 toilet units, and never fewer than one. At 60 to 65 units, that’s 6 or 7 stations. Still, that’s a minimum and not a target. Handwashing is the thing people under-order more than anything else on a festival. If you’ve got a food court, order above the minimum and put them by the food.
Food service
Count your food court separately, for toilets and wash stations both. Vendors, staff, and the line that forms in front of them are a crowd inside your crowd.
Multi-day festivals
The chart sizes one day, and it assumes nobody’s pumping during the event. For three days, you either add units or add a service window in the middle. One or the other. We work this out constantly on multi-day music festivals, where day three is a completely different job than day one.
What happens when the crowd is bigger than anyone planned for?
You add units, and you get them out there before the gate opens.
We’ve got the contract for portable toilets and restroom trailers at Sand Mountain Park and Amphitheater in Albertville. Their concerts normally sell somewhere between 2,500 and 3,500 tickets. What we keep out there for that is a 10-stall restroom trailer, an 8-stall restroom trailer, and a 4-stall trailer for their VIP guests.
Then they booked a show that outsold anything they’d ever put on, right around 6,000 tickets. That’s close to double a normal night, with the same three trailers on site.
So we ended up adding 13 toilets on top of the trailers that were already there, just so there’d be extra room for people. We were still adding them up until about two days before the event. We made it happen for them.
People ask me what event organizers underestimate. Honestly, they normally don’t. We ask a lot of questions when somebody calls in for a quote, and we keep talking through the scenarios that might come up. That’s what makes a late change work. Ordering portable restrooms for a festival isn’t a one-time decision. Instead, it’s a conversation that runs right up to load-in.
How often should portable restrooms be serviced at a multi-day festival?
For one day, once overnight is usually enough. For a multi-day festival, somebody needs to come back during the event too. Servicing portable restrooms for a festival is a different job on day two than it is on day one.
Servicing once overnight assumes every unit can carry a full day. That’s fair on day one. On day two, though, you’re starting with whatever day one left in there, and a unit that fills up at two in the afternoon is going to sit like that until midnight.
So put a service window in the run of show and treat it like anything else on the schedule.
- Pick a slow hour. Late morning usually works, because gates are open but the crowd’s thin.
- Do it in sections. Take one bank offline at a time so people always have somewhere to go.
- Give the truck a way in. If a vendor trailer is parked in the only lane wide enough for a pump truck, the window’s gone.
- Put it on the printed schedule. Otherwise somebody’s going to block the route.
- Tell your provider your peak hours before they build the route.
Where should portable restrooms go on a festival site?
Spread them out, and put more of them where the lines are going to be. Placement matters as much as count when you’re laying out portable restrooms for a festival.
People use whichever bank is closest. So the units by the main stage and the beer garden take a lot more traffic than the ones by the parking field, even with the same count at both. Put more toward food, alcohol, and the stage exits. Keep them where people can see them from a distance, and light them. If somebody can’t find a restroom, you’re short, even with enough units on the ground.
Events spread out over a route work differently. The World’s Longest Yard Sale comes through Noccalula Falls Park here in Gadsden, and there’s no single site plan for something like that. Instead, you’re sizing small clusters along the route and moving a truck between them.
Are ADA portable restrooms required at festivals?
At a public event, yes, and the rule’s more specific than most people know. The accessible share of your portable restrooms for a festival gets figured bank by bank, not event-wide.
The 2010 ADA Standards for Accessible Design, Section 213.2, Exception 3, is written as a ceiling rather than a floor. Where single-user portable units are clustered at one location, no more than 5 percent of the units at that cluster have to comply. It gets figured cluster by cluster instead of across your event total, so six restroom banks means you run it six times. The standard doesn’t set a minimum of one, and it doesn’t tell you how to round a fraction. We put at least one accessible unit at every bank anyway, because that’s what works on the ground, and because telling somebody the accessible unit is four hundred feet away isn’t access.
Two other things matter as much as the ratio. First, an accessible unit needs firm, level ground to get to it, because one sitting at the bottom of a grass slope isn’t accessible. Second, they belong at every bank, not all together in one corner.
What does Alabama require for festival portable restrooms?
Alabama Administrative Code Rule 420-3-1-.29 sets two requirements. Portable toilets used in Alabama have to meet ANSI/PSAI Z4.3 or Z4.4 standards. And you have to have a contract with a certified pumper permitted under Chapter 420-3-6. Alabama wrote the industry standard into state law by reference, which most states haven’t done.
One thing to be straight about: that rule doesn’t set unit counts for temporary events or mass gatherings. No other Alabama rule sets them either. So counts come from PSAI guidance rather than from the state, and your county health department may want something else on top of that. If your event is permitted, call the county environmentalist and ask. That answer beats any chart, including this one.
How far in advance should a festival book portable restrooms?
Book portable restrooms for a festival as soon as you’ve got your dates, even if you’re still guessing at attendance.
Fall dates in Etowah and Calhoun counties fill up on the weekends first, and everybody wants the same three Saturdays in October. Restroom trailers book out further than standard units, because there aren’t as many of them. We can change a count later. What we can’t do is come up with units on a Friday.
Book before you finalize your layout. After all, it’s easier to move a layout than it is to move equipment.
What does festival portable restroom rental cost in Alabama?
I’m not going to put a price for portable restrooms for a festival in a blog post, because four things move it and I don’t know yours yet.
- How many units, which depends on your peak crowd and your hours.
- How many service visits, which is where multi-day gets different from single-day.
- Site access, meaning how far the pump truck has to go and whether it can reach every bank.
- Your mix, meaning standard units, ADA units, hand wash stations, and whether you want a restroom trailer at a VIP or sponsor area.
The smallest order usually isn’t the cheapest one. What you want instead is the right count, a service window on the schedule, and somebody who knows your site well enough to add to it on short notice.
Send us your site map, your dates, and what you’re expecting for attendance, and we’ll size it with you. Get a quote from McMichael Waste Services or call 256-438-6118.
Frequently asked questions about portable restrooms for a festival
How many portable restrooms does a festival need?
Size to the most people you’ll have on the grounds at once, not your weekend ticket total. Take a festival with 5,000 people on site at once on a Saturday, running eight hours: that comes to about 50 units under PSAI guidance. Then add the 20 to 30 percent bump for alcohol or 80-plus-degree heat, and it climbs to 60 or 65, plus 6 or 7 handwashing stations.
What is peak concurrent attendance?
Peak concurrent attendance is the most people you have on the grounds at one time, which is rarely your ticket total. A three-day festival that sells 9,000 tickets but has 5,000 people out there Saturday evening is a 5,000-person plan, not a 9,000-person plan. Sizing off the average day instead of the busiest one is what leaves an event short.
How often should porta potties be serviced at a multi-day festival?
Once overnight is enough for a one-day event. A multi-day festival needs somebody coming back during the event too, because day two starts with whatever day one left behind. Schedule it during a slow hour, do it in sections so a bank is always open, and put the truck’s route on the printed schedule.
Can you add portable restrooms after the order is placed?
Yes, and how late depends on your provider’s inventory and how well they know your site. We’ve added 13 units to a booked event about two days out when ticket sales ran past what anybody expected. So tell your provider as soon as your numbers move instead of waiting on a final count.
Where should portable restrooms go on a festival site?
Spread them out, and put more of them where the lines are going to be. The banks by the main stage and the beer garden take far more traffic than the ones by the parking field, even at the same count, so weight your placement toward food, alcohol, and the stage exits. Keep every bank visible and lit. If somebody can’t find a restroom, you’re short even with enough units on the ground.
Are ADA portable restrooms required at festivals?
Yes, at public events. The 2010 ADA Standards, Section 213.2, Exception 3, caps the requirement at 5 percent of the units at each cluster, figured separately at every location rather than across your whole event. It’s a ceiling, not a minimum, and it doesn’t address rounding. We put at least one accessible unit at every bank as a matter of practice, and every one of them needs firm, level ground to get to it.
Are portable restrooms regulated in Alabama?
Yes. Alabama Administrative Code Rule 420-3-1-.29 requires portable toilets to meet ANSI/PSAI Z4.3 or Z4.4 standards, plus a pumping contract with a certified pumper permitted under Chapter 420-3-6. There’s no state rule setting unit counts for mass gatherings, though, so counts come from PSAI guidance and whatever your county health department layers on top.
How far in advance should a festival book portable restrooms?
Book as soon as your dates are set, even if attendance is still a guess. Fall weekend dates in Etowah and Calhoun counties go first, and October Saturdays go fastest. Restroom trailers book out the furthest. Counts can change later. Availability can’t.
What does festival portable restroom rental cost in Alabama?
I won’t put a number in a blog post, because four things move it: how many units your peak crowd and hours require, how many service visits a multi-day event needs, how far the pump truck has to travel to reach every bank, and your mix of standard units, ADA units, and hand wash stations. The smallest order usually isn’t the cheapest one. The right count with a service window built in beats a lowball quote you’ll end up adding to mid-event.
Whether you need portable restrooms for a festival, a race, or a county fair, McMichael Waste Services delivers portable toilet rentals, restroom trailer rentals, and event sanitation across Etowah, Calhoun, Marshall, DeKalb, and St. Clair counties and the wider Southeast. We also handle corporate events and outdoor weddings.
