Indoor Portable Toilets
The unreasonable placement of indoor portable toilets at G.E.M.'s Taizhou concert led to a poor audience experience, highlighting the need for scientific and rational arrangements of portable toilets at concerts.
Indoor portable toilets are movable facilities that provide restroom services to the public and are suitable for densely populated public venues such as concerts. During G.E.M.'s concerts held on the evenings of July 20 and 21 at the Taizhou Sports Center Stadium in Zhejiang, dozens of portable toilets were placed near the seating areas in the indoor section. However, their placement was unreasonable. From the stands, one could smell the strong odor emanating from the portable toilets. In hot weather, the mixture of sweat and toilet odors made the environment stuffy and foul, seriously affecting the audience's experience.
The rental and placement of portable toilets at concert venues are usually the responsibility of the organizers, with stadiums generally not involved in their placement and management. This means that when arranging portable toilets, organizers need to fully consider various factors, such as the venue layout, the number and distribution of the audience, and ventilation conditions. A reasonable placement can not only meet the audience's restroom needs but also prevent the spread of odors from adversely affecting the audience.
Similar situations have occurred before, with netizens complaining about the strong odors from portable toilets at G.E.M.'s Qingdao and Shanghai concerts. However, different venue designs result in different placement locations for portable toilets. For example, at the 2024 Joker Xue's tour concert in Qujing, 50 independent portable toilets were set up in front of the LED screen on the inner side of the venue. At Mayday's 2023 Shanghai concert, multiple portable restrooms were placed in the VIP audience area and beside the stage control console to ensure an adequate number and reasonable distribution. These successful cases provide references for organizers. Organizers should learn from past experiences and conduct scientific planning and reasonable layout when arranging portable toilets, fully considering the audience's experience to avoid affecting the overall effect of the concert due to issues such as unreasonable placement of portable toilets.
