A representative for the A Day On The Green concert series has defended the event's apparent lack of hand-washing facilities in urinal areas at last weekend's event at Sirromet Wines, south of Brisbane, saying the overall number of basins provided "well exceeds the official requirement".
As News Corp reports, men who took advantage of the festival's newly implemented fenced-off, five-person urinal areas over the usual port-a-loo would have had to line up twice — if they could be bothered — to exercise basic hygiene, as no running water, soap or basins were provided in the standing-room-only latrines.
A spokeswoman for ADOTG made a case for the infrastructure to News Corp, explaining that there were more than 150 hand-wash sinks to complement the 158 port-a-loos and 50-person-capacity urinals on site.
"We have just started supplementing the port-a-loos with five-person urinals and had 10 of these on site at the weekend," the spokeswoman told the Herald Sun.
"The urinals did not have individual hand-wash sinks but the number provided in the toilet area well exceeds the official requirement."
However, a spokesman for the council of Redland City — where the winery is located, in Mount Cotton — said that the guidelines used were inappropriate for the festival as they pertain to crowds of up to 5000, while more than 15,000 people were estimated to be at ADOTG this past weekend, when veteran US troubadour James Taylor and UK outfit Simple Minds served as headliners across Saturday and Sunday respectively.
That said, according to a fact sheet on toilet facilities at events supplied by the Council Of Mayors (SEQ), for crowds of up to 5000 patrons, there should be 38 sit-down toilets on-site (eight male, 30 female), 25 urinals, and 34 hand basins (17 male, 17 female).
Thus, for 15,000 patrons, it would be reasonably expected that an event could host 114 sit-down toilets (ADOTG had 158), 75 urinals (ADOTG had 50, or 10 five-person troughs) and 102 hand basins (ADOTG had at least 150) within the projected guidelines, so if the event could be said to have nominally under-serviced anything, it was actually the number of urinal facilities.
News Corp reports that Redland City Council has denied responsibility for ensuring that the facilities were up to scratch, while the Office of Liquor, Gaming & Regulation says that it falls under council's purview as part of the Waste Reduction & Recycling Act 2011.
Despite the back and forth between those bodies, ultimately, the festival appears to be taking responsibility for the situation, and is open to changing its set-up at future events. "Our site team are constantly talking to our suppliers to improve whatever we can for patron comfort at the event so, yes, [basins in the urinals are] something that could be discussed for the future," ADOTG's spokeswoman said.
That's good news for people planning to head to any of the ADOTG events at Sirromet over the coming weeks, with Eagles founder Don Henley set to hit the winery on 12 March and fellow icons Cyndi Lauper and Blondie following on 2 April; see theGuide for details.
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