The information below was written by Roy Hunt of Hunts Exhibition Services in May 1995. Portable Water Supplies at Glastonbury Festival. Contrary to most peoples' belief, drinking water is not available in quanitity in all locations A Festival such as Glastonbury requires 1 million gallons of water over a period of 5 days. Worthy Farm, the home of Glastonbury Festival, is situated on the outshirts of Pilton - a small village - the nearest town being Shepton Mallet. Obviously, Pilton has a mains water supply but; only on a relatively small diameter main which is adequate for its needs and those of neighbouring farms. During the Festival period the local population increases by around 100,000 people and obviously the existing supply system cannot possibly cope with their requirements. This problem is overcome by importing water from a Water Authority Reservoir some 7 miles away. Milk tankers carrying 2000 to 5000 gallons are used for this purpose and run between the Reservoir and the Festival Site 24 hours a day from a day or two before the Festival to the Monday after closedown. There is a 25000 gallon storage facility at Worthy Farm which is continuously replenished by tanker and at various locations around the site there are 5 tankers, each holding 5000 gallons of water. These tankers are monitored continuously arid refilled as required. Having the required storage capacity available, we must then consider how it is distributed around the site. Long before the build-up for the Festival, drawings are prepared showing the location of all areas requiring water - Toilet areas, Handwash areas, Cafes, Caterers, Market areas, Crew Camps, Caravan Site, the Police and Hospital areas and many other points. When this map is completed we then add to the plan the routing of the pipework in such a way as to distribute the feed from the various areas to the final delivery area. In order to deliver water to all the specified areas, some 15km (almost 10 miles) of water pipe are laid in as unobtrusive a manner as possible. The pipe sizes vary from 2" down to ½ ". The number of joints and connections runs into thousands. For instance, there are around 150 sinks and 100 standpipes alone. After the event all this pipework and associated fittings are recovered and stored ready for next year's event. In order to ensure an adequate supply to all areas, it is necessary, due to the undulating nature of the ground, to pump the water around the system. At peak times there are seven large pumps in operation to circulate water around the site. All the water supplied to the site via the tankers is from a Water Board Installation and is guaranteed to be of high quality by the Water Board. In order to ensure that this quality does not deteriorate, the tankers are dosed with a small quantity of Sodium Hypochlorite which increases the free chlorine content of the water to to slightly above the normal level. The tankers are checked again for free chlorine before discharging on site. It should be noted at this point that all drinking water supplies must have at least a very small free chlorine content which is necessary to react with any bacteria in the water or the supply system. If there is no available free chlorine in the water, then any bacterial material could quickly multiply with very serious consequences. Treated water also loses a percentage of it's free chlorine content due to evaporation and heat. This is particularly noticeable when long lengths of pipework are laid above ground. Therefore, although the chlorine content is set at a higher than normal level at the outset, by the time it reaches the point; of delivery, i.e. the taps, it wll be back to normal levels and unnoticeable, having done its task of maintaining the quality of the water. For a week prior to the start of the Festival and daily throughout the period a random test for free chlorine is done at points throughout the site by H.E.S and the results passed to Mendip Council's Environmental Health Officers on site. They then check up on 6 of our test supply points to confirm the results. Further on the subject of quality control, for a week prior to the Festival 20 samples per day are taken for bacteriological testing at a Certificated Public Health Laboratory. Again the results are presented to E.H.O who in turn resample several ramdom points for their won testing purposes and comparison with ours. The supply and quality of portable water at an event; such as Glastonbury Festival is of paramount importance to all who attend and we try to achieve perfection for the sake of everyone.