What does a park festival need from the City?
A Special Event Permit may be needed for an outdoor event that affects three or more City departments, with 30 days' notice. A Park Use Permit covers portable restrooms in a City park.
Applications need a site plan that shows the units. The City's special events team answers questions about which permit applies, and the Park Management Division handles the park conditions.
The City does not provide restrooms for private events, so a festival that is not run by the City arranges its own count and its own units.
What does the organiser need to supply before the count is final?
The expected attendance by day and hour, the stage and food layout, the gate plan, the vendor list and the permit reference for the park. Without those five items, the count is a provisional estimate.
Ask the organiser for the layout as a drawing and for the gate plan. A drawing lets the technician place each cluster on the route, instead of guessing from a verbal description of the park.
The organiser also confirms the number of vendors and their hours. A food vendor with a crew of six working a long day uses a unit more than most guests do, and the count gives that vendor its own cluster.
How are the units placed for a large gate line?
Clusters sit at the end of the gate line and beside the ticket booth, with a route to each cluster that does not cross the queue.
A cluster at the gate line gets the arrival rush, and the departure rush uses the same cluster on the way out. The route is lit, firm and marked.
A unit placed in the middle of the queue blocks the queue. The technician keeps the units to the edges of the line.
- Clusters at the end of the gate line
- Units beside the food area and the stage
- A firm route to each cluster, lit after dark
- A servicing visit before each peak
What does a multi-day festival change in the plan?
Every day gets its own count and its own servicing schedule. The units used on day one are not cleaned to the same standard on day three unless the schedule says so.
A festival that runs three days needs a visit before the gates each morning, a visit at the mid-day rush and a visit before the evening set. Those visits are written into the schedule and posted at each cluster.
At the close of each day, the site contact notes any unit that filled early, and the technician adds a visit for the next day. That note is the difference between a clean festival and a complaint.
What happens when the headline set ends?
The crowd rushes to the units at once. The plan puts a service visit before the headline set and a cluster placed on the exit route.
A unit that was serviced at the start of the day can fill during the last hour. The site contact calls for a visit at the start of the final set.
The exit route is planned so guests do not have to cross the field to reach a unit, and the route is checked again before the event.
