Under pressure

Event organisers are carefully making temporary water supply plans for 2023 ot even the most diligent events professionals could have foreseen the impact that last summer’s scorching temperatures would have on temporary infrastructure and operations. Months of below-average rainfall coupled with temperatures that topped 40C put pressure on an already frazzled events eco-system that saw both organisers and suppliers battling to make it through the season. So, imagine the pressure on temporary water systems as crew and audiences fought to stay hydrated.

Matt Tooth, joint managing director of GMC Events, is currently working with Kambe Events, organiser of Shambala, and Liquiline, the temporary water supply and bulk water provider, to improve water infrastructure on the festival’s Northamptonshire site.

“Shambala constantly grows and evolves,” explained Tooth. “We want to improve the water infrastructure to keep up with capacity. With more permanent infrastructure, Shambala can have more control and water meters allow us to see how water is being used. This will enable Shambala to create a more robust sustainability plan around water usage.”

Currently, one ring main services the bulk of the Shambala site. This February and March, Liquiline is installing an additional ring main, with take-offs at key points around the system, which will reduce the amount of overlay pipework required.

Tooth continued: “As the festival has expanded, the camping facilities have extended into another field, which now has traders, showers, and campers. The new ring main and an additional buffer system will enable Shambala to expand over that field.”

Bill Wootten, managing director of Liquiline, says the additional ring main will allow for add additional storage, boosting the system for those areas of the site that suffer from being at the end of the line.

Tooth described the addition of permanent infrastructure as a large step toward a more sustainable approach to water usage. He admitted that extreme heat placed the festival’s water system under pressure last year. This year, “more resilience” will be put into the system by two large pillow tanks on site – one 100 cubic metres and one 50 cubic metres.

Reduce Plastic

Liquiline has a three-year contract with the festival. 2022 was year one of a three-year deal. Wootten is keen to take learnings from last year and is working even closer with Tooth and his team to design and install additional infrastructure, including water meters, that will help the festival reduce overlay, reduce water waste, and the amount of plastic piping used. Plus, the organising team wants a deeper analysis of peaks and troughs; water meters will enable the team to drill down on water usage in each area of the site.

Liquiline is not only working with Shambala this summer. It has signed a new three-year deal with Threshold Sports to provide water for more than 25 mass participation events. Plus, the water provider is supplying services to Truckfest, Cereals, Bristol Pride, and Royal International Air Tattoo.

Liquiline is set to launch a standalone, single-bottle refill station as well as new four and six-tap water refill stations with built-in waste pumps to supplement its current stock. Wootten described the events marketplace as buoyant and competitive, whilst Sven Parris, head of sales and marketing at Water Direct, said that the events industry has sprung back to life.

Richard Connor, managing director of Temporary Water Solutions, confirmed that requests for bottle refilling stations continue to rise as many events try to make bottled water (and single-use plastics in general) a thing of the past. Temporary Water Solutions is fabricating its own units in-house to meet specific client needs.

Connor said: “On the whole, the events market is positive. Many of our clients with well-established events booked our services early (before Christmas). We have received a high number of enquiries about new events, planned for this year. However, not all these organisers are ready to place orders as they are a little uncertain about selling enough tickets.”

Clean Customers

But selling tickets is not the only challenge that organisers face. Supply chain issues are a problem. In fact, they were such a problem in 2022 that Joe Heap, festival director of Towersey Festival, decided to purchase his own water infrastructure because the festival could not source a water supplier. The infrastructure will be paid for over a period of three years and in year four, Towersey will start seeing savings.

“We were struggling to find a supplier, so we bought pipes,” explained Heap. “We used to dry hire kit and now we own it.”

Heap and festival project manager Mary Hodson, Heap’s younger sister, described last year’s foray into temporary water infrastructure as a “learning curve”.

“Our site has a water feed. We used some pillow tanks to create our own system, but it took 12 days to fill a pillow tank. We also brought in our own crew, had a plumber on site, and worked with a local water testing company,” Heap added. “We learned that one small tap is not enough so for 2023, we’re working on a secondary water supply, and we’ll be filling tanks earlier!”

Hodson said the Towersey team is working with the Steeple Claydon estate to put in more feeds and is also in talks with Anglian Water. The immense heat of 2022 put pressure on the water system, which meant that the festival did have to tanker in a small amount of water to ensure the festival didn’t run out.

“The new system required lots of work, logistically,” continued Heap. “If anyone else is thinking of buying their own kit, make sure you have a hardworking team, allow lots of time, and make sure you have good connections with local suppliers.

“This year, we are making a few tweaks to the site to make it work even better and we’ll be addressing some pinch points. For example, there was heavy water usage in the showers.”

Hodson concluded: “Our customers are annoyingly clean.”