Sunrise Celebration seeks compost toilet designs for UK festival

A unique competition to find the best-designed compost toilets is being held by the UK company behind the award-winning Sunrise Celebration festival. Family Gathering Ltd, based in Glastonbury, UK, is organising the four-day environmental and music festival off the A303 near Yeovil, Somerset, from May 31 to June 4.

After picking up the ‘Most Socially Responsible Festival’ national award for the first Sunrise Celebration last year, Family Gathering wants to further improve the visitor experience in 2007. The award, sponsored by the charity Shelter, means Sunrise Celebrations are recognised on a national stage as the leading-edge ecological brand in the festival sphere.

Now, Family Gathering wants to encourage innovative eco-designs and designers to come up with temporary, self-contained, and standalone compost toilets for use in a festival environment.

Toilet designs will be accepted for normal, disabled, child-friendly, and female urinals. Blocks of up to six toilets from each of up to five winning designers will be accepted, and a larger contract for future events will be awarded for the overall winning models – which will be voted upon by the festival goers themselves.

Family Gathering director Sun Bird (CORRECT) said: “The use of compost toilets is a big step forward for festivals. “It reduces the pressure on local infrastructure and resources, heavy vehicle traffic on site, risks to public health and safety, water consumption, and long-term environmental damage which results from the use of portable chemical toilets.

“This is combined with the benefit of completing a natural cycle by turning our waste into valuable growing medium.”

The deadline for entries is April 20 and designs can be emailed to aylin@sunrisecelebration.com or posted to Compost Toilet Competition, The Sunrise Celebration, 27 Fairfield Gardens, Glastonbury, BA6 9NH.

More information is available on the festival’s website at www.sunrisecelebration.com or by emailing info@sunrisecelebration.com or telephoning 0845 0096347.

‘Early bird’ tickets are already on sale for the Sunrise Celebration 2007 which will be a showcase for the best social and ecological practices available, demonstrating their viability on practical and economic levels.

Sunrise Celebration 2007 again features Family Gathering’s familiar policies of recycling waste, horse drawn transport, 100 per cent renewable energy, and a site-wide organic policy on all food and drink.