Music festival organisers obliged to provide adequate supply of toilet paper

The organisers of Reading Festival have made a U-turn after they had said that toilet paper in campsite loos would not be restocked during this year's event. A statement on the Reading Festival website, which has since been removed, said: “We are always improving on our sustainability policies, this year we’re going to crack down on the sheer amount of paper/tissue we have to purchase for this, considering the amount that gets wasted rather than used for its intended purpose.”

It also advised there would be traders on site selling toilet roll, and people would be allowed to bring their own in. However, Duncan Godding, 27, who is a parish councillor in Burghfield, and has been going to the festival for many years, thought the organisers’ recent decision seemed unfair. Upon further investigation, Mr Godding found that the organiser, Festival Republic, had breached section 7.10.0 (b) of the site licence, which states that every sanitary appliance within the main arena and campsite must be provided with an adequate supply of toilet paper.



Mr Godding approached Reading Borough Council’s licensing department with his findings, urging it to enforce the licensing terms. He said: “I have been going to the festival for years and am very much looking forward to going this year. When I first heard about the decision to not provide toilet roll at this year’s festival, I thought it didn’t sound right, so I looked into it and found out that my suspicions were right.

“I think it’s quite unfair as the ticket prices go up and up every year, they said it was to be more sustainable but I think it’s just a way of cutting costs.” Council spokesman Oscar Mortali said: “Reading Festival has a number of licence requirements Among those is the provision of an adequate supply of toilet paper.” Gordon Duncan, spokesman for the Reading Festival organiser, said: “In an effort to improve our sustainability policies, we did consider reducing the amount of toilet roll supplied in the campsites. Following feedback from festival fans, the decision has been taken to maintain the supply of toilet roll distributed within the campsites.”