Glastonbury Water Kiosks
2017 Water Kiosk FAQs
1. What do people need to bring to collect their bottles?
People must bring their address slip, attached to their tickets. This notes the number
of water bottles they have purchased and can be exchanged for the bottles onsite.  
2. What happens if people lose or forget the address slip?
If address slips are lost or discarded, then people will need to contact the festival
when they get home on [email protected]
We will be collecting slips and reconciling all those collected with the full list of
people who have purchased the bottles in the weeks following the festival.
If someone does not have their slip, they cannot collect a bottle. Simple as that!
3. Why can't we just check everyone off a list?
Unfortunately there are too many people to do this – we don't have internet access at
the kiosks to keep a list up to date in all locations, and it would take too long if we
had a printed list; people would end up waiting a long time, which wouldn't be a good
experience when there's so much else people would rather be doing! By providing
multiple collection points, ticking everyone off a list could also be problematic and
lead to errors.
4. Have people received communication about this process?
Everyone who purchased a bottle has been sent an email from the festival with
instructions on how to collect their bottles. If they missed this email somehow, then
they should still have their address slip (as it’s attached to their tickets).
5. What happens with people who have coach tickets?
If you bought tickets as part of a combined festival + coach package ticket, your
festival tickets (including the address slip) will be issued on the coach, mid-way
through your journey. The bottles will be listed on the lead booker’s address slip.
You will be able to exchange your address slip for the water bottle(s) you have
purchased, as described in the water bottle collection information email.
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6. What happens to the address slip once it's handed in - it has personal data
on it?
We take data protection very seriously. Once the address slip has been handed
over, it will be put into a secure box in the WaterAid management area. This will then
be taken to the WaterAid office after the festival where it will be cross checked
against a list of all water bottle buyers so that we can see who did and didn’t collect
their bottle. It will then be archived in secure storage and eventually shredded.
7 .What kinds of bottles can we fill up?
We can fill up anyone’s bottle – as long as we make sure they are happy it is clean
to drink out of. We can fill up plastic bottles if people ask (it stops them buying
another one!) but also encourage people to purchase one of the steel festival
bottles.
8. Do people have to pay for the water?
No, the water is free! If people want to make a donation, there is a collection tin
behind the counter, but this needs to remain out of sight/attached to the kiosk. It’s
just there in case anyone offers a donation as a safe place to put money – we are
not asking for donations at any time. Please make sure that you return any cash to
the campsite at the end of your shift.
9. Where does this water come from? Is it clean?
There are around 240 public taps located around the site. The drinking water is
supplied by Bristol Water from onsite underground reservoirs providing fresh water
for drinking. All the tap water onsite is the same quality water that comes out of your
tap at home. Regular sampling and testing ensures a safe, clean supply.
10. Can we give out cups of water?
Yes we can, if someone really needs water and they don’t have a bottle - although
where possible we’re asking people to bring their own bottles. We will have a very
small n umber of cups at each kiosk.
11. Can we wash people’s bottles out for them?
We can give them a rinse, but we have to inform them that it’s unlikely to be 100%
clean as we don’t use anything to sanitise the bottles. We also use large buckets as
drip trays (there is no sink or drainage at the kiosks) so it is not practical to wash
bottles. It’s people’s own individual responsibility to make sure the bottle is suitable
for use. We also want to avoid wasting water by doing this.
12.Tell me more about the bottles?
These bottles have been introduced by the Raw Foundation in various activities in
the UK. Glastonbury wanted to support the Raw Foundation’s campaign to
reduce the amount of oil-based plastic in the environment by raising awareness
about the true extent of plastic pollution and its impacts. WaterAid wants to promote
the drinking of clean tap water as we know it is a precious resource that millions of
people around the world do not have access to. Together, Glastonbury
Festival, WaterAid and the Raw Foundation hope to inspire behaviour change and
mobilise people to reduce their plastic consumption and implement healthy, fair,
sustainable solutions.
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The bottles are made in China and etched in the UK. The factories in which they are
produced in China meet strict ethical conditions and working standards. The bottles
are shipped to the UK, not flown. Glastonbury festival is working with a factory in
Sheffield to try to develop a bottle that is produced in the UK for future years
(although a lot of UK factories do now manufacture in China anyway)
13. What if someone comes with a really large container to fill up?
We cannot fill up containers that are to be used for any other purpose than drinking –
i.e. washing etc. These can be filled at tap points around the site. Lifting a container
into the kiosk for a refill could potentially be hazardous. We can fill larger bottles for
people within reason, but please use your common sense.
14. Can we empty out the contents of containers or bottles and dispose of
them?
The kiosks don’t have anywhere to dispose of any liquid waste. All we will do is
empty them into the slop buckets, which we then take to the sinks nearby at regular
intervals to empty. We suggest people empty their bottles themselves, there should
always be sinks nearby.
15. Can people wash their belongings, or rinse their wellies at the kiosks?
No! We are trying to conserve as much water as possible - the festival requires more
than 11 million litres of water over a period of five days. People should be
encouraged to take their muddy things home!
16. Why is Glastonbury trying to raise awareness of impact of plastics on the
environment?
The effects on the environment are huge. The very properties that make plastic so
useful also make it a particularly troublesome pollutant. Plastics can take a minimum
of 500 years to degrade and this is having a dramatic effect on ecosystems, human
health, wildlife and the climate. It is estimated that last year, 280 million tonnes of
plastic was produced globally, less than half of which was committed to landfill or
recycled. The remaining 150 million tonnes is littering the earth and vast quantities of
plastic debris can be found in all our oceans.
Each year in the UK we consume three billion litres of bottled water and 10 billion
bottles are sent to landfill. Bottled water typically retails at 500 times the cost of tap
water.
Over the past two years, over 15,000 water bottles have been bought and used on
site at the festival. If everyone who bought one used this twice a day instead of
buying a plastic bottle, then this means we’ve help avoid the use of over 120,000
single use plastic bottles.
17. What has this got to do with WaterAid?
WaterAid will be reminding festival goers that we are very lucky to have clean, fresh
water straight from the tap in this country so rather than buying a single-use bottle of
water that will end up in landfill, we’re encouraging people to buy a reusable cup or
bottle and drink fresh tap water all festival!
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18. How many kiosks are there and what time are they open?
There are 13 Kiosks around the site. WaterAid provide volunteers for 10 of these,
and the Raw Foundation manage the other 3. We
The majority of the Kiosks are open 10am-10pm. The kiosks at the family camping
area and Worthy View are generally open 8am-2pm.
19. Do the profits from the sale of water bottles go to WaterAid?
Profits from the sale of bottles are split between the Raw foundation and WaterAid.
This amount is approximately £5 per bottle sold. Since we began this initiative in
2014, we have raised almost £100,000.
20. How many bottles are for sale in 2017?
There are only 2,000 bottles for sale this year, which is fewer than in previous years.
We generally sell between 4,000-6,000 bottles on site.
The festival organisers decided that because 2018 will be a fallow year (there will be
no festival) they want to use up the existing stock of water bottles instead of
designing and printing new bottles. This also means that this year’s bottles are the
same design as 2016. We will be launching a new bottle initiative with the festival for
the 2019 festival.
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