Guides

Number of toilets needed for your events

5 October 2023

According to European Standard EN 16194, for an event attended by 2,000 people, lasting more than 6 hours, without food or drinks being served, at least 30 sanitary facility cubicles must be provided.

To guarantee the comfort of your participants, it is crucial to set up a sanitary area that is suited to the specific requirements of your event. Find out how below.

What are the main recommendations to bear in mind?

When organising a festival or event, there are several key points to consider when it comes to the layout of your sanitary facilities:

Accessibility: Make sure the sanitary area is easily accessible for everyone, in order to promote inclusiveness.
PRM facilities: In accordance with the DLR Federation (French union of companies in the distribution, rental, maintenance and services sectors for construction and handling equipment), 1 toilet cubicle is to be provided for people with reduced mobility, and then an additional cubicle for every 500 participants. Happee Services offers solutions ranging from PRM dry toilets to recirculating cubicles.
Men’s/Women’s Zones: The length of time sanitary facilities are used differs according to gender. On average, a man takes 45 seconds and a woman 90 seconds. So it’s a good idea to provide urinals for both sexes. Happee Services offers models such as Lapee for men and madamePee for women to reduce waiting times.

Calculating the number of toilets required for your event

If you’re organising an event, you’ll need to work out how many event toilets you’ll need in your sanitary area. A number of parameters need to be taken into account, including the availability of food and drink, the average length of the event and the number of people attending.

So, for example, if you’re organising a festival lasting more than 6 hours and there’s no food or drink involved, 1 cubicle will be needed for every 35 users. A summary is provided in the table below:

The calculation grid defined in this Standard is shown below:

**Table: Number of cubicles according to the number of users for an event lasting more than 6 hours, without food and drink.**
Number of users (50% men and 50% women)	Minimum number of cubicles (For events lasting up to 6 hours)	Minimum number of cubicles (for events lasting up to 12 hours)
Up to 249	4	7
from 250 to 499	8	14
from 500 to 999	15	28
from 1,000 to 1,999	31	57
from 2,000 to 2,999	46	86
from 3,000 to 3,999	62	114
from 4,000 to 4,999	77	142
from 5,000 to 5,999	92	171
from 6,000 to 6,999	100	200
from 7,000 to 7,999	123	220
from 8,000 to 8,999	130	257
from 9,000 to 9,999	154	286
from 10,000 to 10,999	169	314
from 11,000 to 11,999	185	343
from 12,000 to 12,999	200	371
from 13,000 to 13,999	215	400
from 14,000 to 14,999	231	429
from 15,000 to 15,999	246	457
from 16,000 to 16,999	262	486
from 17,000 to 17,999	277	514
from 18,000 to 18,999	292	563
from 19,000 to 19,999	308	571
More than 20,000 users	308 + 16 more per segment of 1,000 users	571 + 29 more per segment of 1,000 users
Cleaning frequency: Intermediate or on-call standby cleaning on site are not included in this table. An individual calculation is required for these benefits. If the event lasts longer than 6 or 12 hours, the cubicle must be cleaned at 6- or 12-hour intervals.

In addition, 1 cubicle per 30 users will be required for a festival lasting more than 6 hours with food and drink service: an increase of 25% should be noted.

**Table: Number of cubicles according to the number of users for an event lasting more than 6 hours, without food and drink.**
Number of users (50% men and 50% women)	Minimum number of cubicles (For events lasting up to 6 hours)	Minimum number of cubicles (for events lasting up to 12 hours)
Up to 249	5	8
from 250 to 499	10	17
from 500 to 999	19	33
from 1,000 to 1,999	30	67
from 2,000 to 2,999	58	100
from 3,000 to 3,999	77	133
from 4,000 to 4,999	96	167
from 5,000 to 5,999	115	200
from 6,000 to 6,999	135	233
from 7,000 to 7,999	154	267
from 8,000 to 8,999	173	300
from 9,000 to 9,999	192	333
from 10,000 to 10,999	212	367
from 11,000 to 11,999	233	400
from 12,000 to 12,999	256	433
from 13,000 to 13,999	269	467
from 14,000 to 14,999	288	500
from 15,000 to 15,999	308	533
from 16,000 to 16,999	327	567
from 17,000 to 17,999	346	600
from 18,000 to 18,999	365	633
from 19,000 to 19,999	385	667
More than 20,000 users	385 + 20 more per segment of 1,000 users	667 + 34 more per segment of 1,000 users
Cleaning frequency: Intermediate or on-call standby cleaning on site are not included in this table. An individual calculation is required for these benefits. If the event lasts longer than 6 or 12 hours, the cubicle must be cleaned at 6- or 12-hour intervals.

In addition to sanitary cubicles, hand-washing facilities must be provided. Happee Services provides independent hand-washing facilities for this purpose. However, we can also provide you with self-contained sanitary cubicles with washbasins. A hand-sanitiser solution is available for the dry toilet cubicles.

How many toilets for 100 people?

It all depends on the type of event (with drinks, food or not, etc.), and its duration, but for 100 people, make provision for at least 4 to 8 toilets depending on the Standard to ensure that your event runs smoothly.

Happee Services can help you with your event

The tables above use the recommendations of Standard EN 16194 to estimate the number of sanitary facilities required. However, for a more accurate estimate tailored to your event, other parameters need to be taken into account, such as the type of audience expected, the availability of a water supply, peak attendance times, etc.

Happee Services can help you to create your sanitary facility area. To do this, our teams can visit your site and offer you a personalised quote.

Would you like to meet our teams? Get in touch with us!