How many units does a Baltimore festival need?
The count is set for the busiest hour from the crowd and the event hours, and no city ratio is applied, because none was found in Baltimore's guidance.
A festival crowd does not arrive evenly. Gates open, a headline act starts, or the food line peaks, and for an hour the restroom demand is far above the average. The plan takes the expected number at the peak, applies the event's own pattern of use, and sets a count that can absorb that peak without a long queue.
Baltimore's guidance does not set a portable-restroom requirement or a units-per-guest figure for events. We therefore do not state one, and we do not borrow a number from another city. The count is agreed with the organiser and written into the plan, which is the document the permit office will see.
Layout that keeps the lines moving
A good festival layout puts the units away from the food and the main gate, puts a clear walkway between blocks, and gives the servicing truck a route that never crosses the crowd.
Lines form where the walk from the crowd to the unit is short and the units are few. Spreading the units in blocks at two or three points, rather than one long row, keeps any single line short. Lighting is planned for the evening hours, when a dark path is the most common complaint.
The servicing truck is planned into the layout from the start. A route that crosses the main walkway will be blocked by the crowd at the busiest hour, so the truck comes in from the service road and leaves the same way.
- Blocks of units rather than one long row
- A walkway wide enough for two people side by side
- Lighting for the evening hours
- A truck route off the main walkway
Servicing a festival through the day
Servicing is scheduled around the peak: a visit before the crowd arrives, a supervisor during the rush and a close-out visit when the event ends.
A festival that runs from late morning to night needs more than one visit. The first visit makes sure every unit is clean, stocked and working before the gate opens. The supervisor then walks the blocks during the rush and calls for a pump-out if a unit fills faster than expected.
At close the units are pumped and the spot is cleared. The schedule has the close-out time written on it so the crew knows when the permit requires the spot to be clear.
The permit file and the restroom plan
For an event that needs a city permit, the restroom plan is part of the file, so it is drawn to the same scale and dated to the same event as the rest of the application.
The city's Special Events Office takes applications at least six weeks before the event, and the application is made in person by the organiser. A restroom plan that arrives late, or that disagrees with the crowd figure in the rest of the file, slows the whole application.
We prepare the restroom layout and count as a separate drawing so the organiser can attach it. It states the number of units, the accessible units, the servicing times and the close-out time, which are the points an office is most likely to ask about.
Checking the layout with the organiser before the gates open
A walk of the finished layout with the organiser, a day or two before the event, catches the blocks that are in the wrong place and the routes that have changed since the plan was drawn.
A plan drawn in the office is a reasonable guide, but a park changes between the drawing and the day. A tree branch, a new sign, a stage that has moved or a cordoned lawn can put a block in the wrong place. The technician walks the layout with the organiser and marks every change on the drawing before the crew builds it.
That walk is also the moment to agree the supervisor's route. The supervisor needs to see every block and every truck route, and the organiser needs to know where the supervisor will be at the peak hour, so that a call from a guest reaches the right person quickly.
