Stepping up their game

It's a high-pressure job, often involving sizeable cleaning teams working to quick turnaround times. Precision planning, attention to detail and the flexibility to adapt to each event's own individual requirements are vital. 

And, while it may be straightforward enough to plan how long it will take to clean the whole venue once, after vast numbers of visitors arrive, it can be a lot harder to work out how many times each area will need to be cleaned during the event. 

Now there is another challenge facing this specialist sector: as the UK remains on its highest state of alert, security and policing at large-scale events has been markedly tightened.

Security hoaxes and scares have significantly increased in public spaces, including big, crowded summer events in the UK, Europe and beyond, following the security incidents in Manchester and London earlier this year.  

Events cleaning companies are therefore being required to introduce a robust security policy specific to each venue in order to offer those contracting their services peace of mind.

"Multiple-ID procedures, background checks, working with local police, stringent transport and logistical protocols, staffing ID protocol and highly trained operations managers combine to make for a more rigorous event security policy before, during and after all events," explains Pat Ryan, CEO of events cleaning specialist Ryans Cleaning. You can read more about this here.

Events are adapting and evolving in other ways too, including taking an innovative approach to toilet facilities. 

This year, for the first time, information boards at Glastonbury Festival were powered by attendees' urine, provided via a 40-person urinal situated by the headline Pyramid stage. The technology, designed by scientists at the Bristol Bioenergy Centre (BBiC), can power lights and charge mobile phones.

More than 1,000 litres of urine was estimated to have flowed through the "Pee Power" system every day, with the scientist's microbial fuel cells generating energy from the fluid. The fuel cells house bacteria that literally eat human urine and create biochemical energy as a by-product, which can be converted into electricity.

The makers of Pee Power say it offers a chance to transform the lives of those living in less economically developed countries, where sanitation and electricity are off grid. The festival is therefore being used as a field trial in advance of planned trials in Africa and India.