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Festival queues a thing of the past with mixed loos

Introducing gender-neutral toilets at music festivals would eliminate long queues for the ladies’ loos, according to two Belgian researchers.

Scientists Kurt Van Hautegem and Wouter Rogiest, both of Ghent University, used mathematical formulae to find the most ‘female-friendly’ toilet lay-out, concluding that a move to mixed male/female lavatories would help “put an end to this misogynistic toilet culture” (in which women are forced to wait longer than men) by reducing waiting times by up to 63%.

Outlining their findings in science magazine Eos, Van Hautegem and Rogiest demonstrate a model for festival toilets in which the average waiting time for women is cut to one minute and 27 seconds (from 6m19s).

Male waiting times increase only slightly, from 11 to 58 seconds, owing to a reduction in the number of urinals.

Van Hautegem and Rogiest’s model has already been rolled out at several events in Belgium, including the recent Best Kept Secret and Rock Werchter festivals and Coldplay’s June shows at King Baudouin Stadium in Brussels.

North Carolina won’t be happy…

 


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