If you are organising a sports event, getting the toilets right could be the most important part of your planning. Wight Event Toilets are experienced suppliers of luxury toilet trailers for all kinds of different sporting events in and around the southwest. Ollie Haines, co-founder of Wight Event Toilets, gives the lowdown on what’s involved in catering for sports events, explains why the logistics are so important and offers his top tips for hassle-free portable toilet hire. The golden rule? Don’t leave the loos until the last minute!

Hi Ollie! How many sporting events have WET covered?

We have covered a wide range of sporting events over the years, including half marathons, 10k runs, downhill mountain biking championships, university sporting events, horse racing and amateur football matches.

Which was the biggest?

The national championships for downhill mountain biking – the British National Enduro Champs – was our biggest sports event to date. We catered for around 3,000 competitors across the three-day weekend event in Somerset in July 2021. We used our larger 3+1 luxury trailers and had a service plan in place throughout so we could clean and remove the waste part-way through the weekend.

How about the smallest?

We’ve catered for several 10k runs in both Bath and Bristol with around 200 runners competing each time. For these events we use our two bay economy trailers as they don't require power or water and are very easy to move around. They are also our most cost-effective toilet trailers.

Are there any particular challenges that sports events present to your business?

Most of the time the larger scale sporting events require servicing, so it’s always a challenge to try and service the trailers onsite whilst the event is still live!

How do you manage this?

To get around this we can arrange to arrive very early in the morning or late at night to service the trailers with minimal disruption. Likewise with delivery and collection hours, these can also be very late or very early depending on the event schedule. We are extremely flexible with our working hours.

What are your top tips for anyone looking to organise a sports event?

Make sure you have enough loos to keep the queues down during peak times. It can rapidly switch from being very quiet to hundreds of people all turning up at once – it’s really important to factor this in!

Are there any legal requirements for toilet hire in the UK that organisers need to be aware of?

As a general rule, if an event lasts no more than six hours and no food or alcohol is served, you should provide one portable toilet unit for every 100 female guests expected and another for every 500 men – plus an additional portable urinal unit for every 150 men. A disabled loo must also be provided. Our large 4+1 luxury disabled toilet is perfect as it’s an all in one, self-contained trailer.

Are any of your toilet units particularly suitable for sports events?

Absolutely! Our two bay and four bay economy trailers are perfect as they are cost effective, they come with solar lighting and they don’t require any power or water.

We have also recently invested in five large event trailers that will be ready and available from late January 2022. These are:

• Two of the 4+2 luxury trailers: four ladies’ toilets, two gents’ toilets and four urinals. These are suitable for up to 450 people over 12 hours.
• Three x 8 bay luxury trailers: eight ladies’ toilets and eight gents’ toilets. These are suitable for up to 400 people over 12 hours.
• We also have one 18 bay urinal trailer: suitable for hundreds and hundreds of gents over a long period of time.

Ideal for large footfalls at sizeable events, these six trailers alone could service over 3,000 people over a 12-hour period.

Finally, what about showers?

It’s worth noting that showers are sometimes also required at sporting events for staff or customers staying onsite. As well as our two bay luxury shower unit we are also putting the finishing touches to our brand new four bay luxury shower trailer which will be ready for hire from February 2022.

Find out more about shower trailer hire.

In need toilet hire for your sports event? Get in touch today – we’d love to help.