We are ‘festival ready’ on Isle of Wight

When nature calls at the Isle of Wight Festival – we’ll be ready.

Ever wondered what happens when you flush one of the more than 670 festival loos at this annual music and arts event – or brave a shower?

This year, we expect to remove and treat around 2.3 million litres of wastewater from the Newport site, as festival goers make use of the facilities across the four days in June.

We’ll have four special vacuum lorries, called ‘Gulpers’, ready to take the loads to a dedicated tanker reception area at our neighbouring Fairlee Water Pumping Station.

Lee Priddle, Owner and Director of AMP Hire Ltd who own the Gulper lorries said:

“This is our third year of working on the Isle of Wight Festival and we have built a great relationship with Southern Water and the team at the festival to make the Isle of Wight Festival work well for everyone involved.

“We can transport between 1,500 litres and 15,000 litres at a time, we have 11 tankers on site which include 7 large and 5 small gulpers.

“Over the course of the festival weekend, we use over 45,000 toilet rolls and 1000 litres of hand sanitizer. The business works around 18 hours a day to keep everything moving and running to ensure that there is no build up for the next day and dispose of everything overnight.”

The screening machines and nursing tanks here, which can hold up to 70,000 litres of wastewater, then remove untreatable solids before transfer to a wastewater treatment works.

Stephen Williams, Network Protection Manager at Southern Water, said:

“The work behind the scenes to ensure the smooth running of this event is colossal. One key part of it is the removal of waste from the festival loos, and our teams and contractors are often the unsung heroes in carrying out essential work to help people enjoy their time here.

“We are very lucky on the Isle of Wight because the close proximity of our Fairlee pumping station to the site means we can be as sustainable and low in carbon emissions as possible.”