Glastonbury to Skip 2012 Due to Toilet Shortage

Posted on Oct 18th 2010 7:45AM by Chris Mugan
Comments

Hayley Madden, Redferns

Glastonbury Festival has been scuppered for 2012 due to a shortage of loos -- and police officers – as the London Olympics takes precedence.

Somerset police have warned festival organisers that the force will be unable to properly cover the Somerset event as hundreds of officers will be drafted into England's capital for the Games.

Michael Eavis told the Mail on Sunday that both issues were a concern. On the subject of hygiene, he said, "We realised early on that it was going to be a big problem. We have our own stock of portable toilets but we always need more. We shop around with four companies to get the best price, but we are not bothering for 2012.

"There will be a huge demand for Portaloo toilets in London, so everyone will push up their prices and I can see it getting very expensive." The festival also spends £1.2 million ($1.9 million) a year on policing, which covers 600 officers. The Olympics are due to start at the end of July, a month later than Glasto's usual timing, but security in London will be beefed up long before that.

This will leave 130,000 music fans with a gap in their diaries, but it is not the first time the festival has had a fallow year. The two most recent breaks were in 2001 and 2006.