The hidden hero behind a festival
Sun, music, and thousands of people coming together to celebrate summer and culture. Major festivals like Primavera Sound in Barcelona, with nearly 300,000 guests in 2025, create lifelong memories – but also pose complex logistical challenges behind the scenes. To deliver a seamless festival experience, everything has to work, including the things few people think about: the toilet facilities.
Running Primavera Sound is like operating a small city over several days. It’s not just about stages, food, music, and security – it’s about ensuring that thousands of people have access to clean water, safe sanitation, and good hygiene. This is where Jets® sanitary solutions plays a key role.
A greener, cleaner festival experience
ToiToi, Europe’s leading provider of mobile sanitation solutions, has used Jets® vacuum toilets for years, at festivals, construction sites, and in other mobile applications. But this year at Primavera Sound, they were ready to test something new: Jets® NOMAD.
While 500 Jets® vacuum toilets were installed across the festival grounds, only 45 of them were connected to Jets® NOMAD – our mobile, plug-and-play system for water and wastewater handling. This trial marked the first time ToiToi used NOMAD at a major festival, and the results were promising.
Primavera Sound use ToiToi as the sanitation provider, and ToiToi chose Jets® vacuum toilets for their toilet modules.
This was ToiToi’s first experience with Jets® NOMAD, and a collaborative milestone in the long-standing partnership between ToiToi and JETS.
- With Jets® NOMAD, and Jets® vacuum toilets, we can offer a higher hygiene standard and a greener solution. This provides both organisers and festival audiences with a better experience, says Roberto Fernández Monje, Technical Director at ToiToi.
Hygienic and comfortable toilets
For most people, good toilet facilities are something they don’t think about – until they do. That can quickly affect the whole experience. They need to be clean, accessible, and comfortable to use. In addition, the operation must be stable and sustainable, even with hundreds of thousands of users over just a few days.
Toilet containers equipped with Jets® vacuum toilets offer a far more hygienic and comfortable experience compared to old-style festival toilets, where waste is left sitting in the cubicle. With Jets® vacuum toilets all waste is instantly removed the moment you press the flush button - swoosh, and the toilet is ready for the next person.
Ensuring a smooth introduction
- Clean, reliable toilet facilities may not be what people come for, but they help make sure they stay and enjoy every moment and we’re proud that our solutions help make that possible, says Montse Lugrís (Sales Manager) at JETS, recalling her arrival at the Primavera Sound festival in Barcelona.
She travelled there to support ToiToi during the start-up phase and to oversee operations together with colleague Tomasz Torun (Service Engineer) monitoring the installation and running of the system.
- It’s always exciting to be on-site when new operators are using the system for the first time, and it’s incredibly rewarding to see that the solution works as it should for the end users, the most important people of all, namely the festival guests, adds Torun.
Michael De Lima Ribeiro, JETS Sales Manager for the Italian and French speaking markets was also present for additional support
- Running our Jets® NOMAD equipment for events like these are very similar in the entire world, so we can be flexible and help each other. It is also very interesting to see how the local operators handle certain situations in each country. We are glad, if we can share knowledge on how to improve the portable sanitation market worldwide.
The experience was excellent – the set-up went smoothly, and the system worked from the start. At JETS, we believe that great technology must be backed by great support. Ensuring a positive customer experience is always a top priority – no matter where in the world our systems are in use.
With the Jets® NOMAD System, you can quickly establish water and wastewater infrastructure for events, campsites, festivals, or construction sites. The five Jets® NOMAD units can be mixed and matched to perfectly meet the specific requirements. The system is scalable to efficiently operate the sanitary infrastructure.
A new standard for any festival
The system consists of the compact Jets® NOMAD Vacuum Unit, which keeps the entire vacuum solution running, and the Jets® NOMAD Catcher Unit, which intercepts unwanted objects before they reach the pumps. Together with vacuum toilets, they provide a solution that is easy to transport, simple to install, and significantly more energy-efficient than traditional systems.
Although NOMAD only operated 45 toilets at Primavera Sound, this was the first time it was used at such a large festival in Spain, and ToiToi’s first time working with the system. NOMAD, the solution demonstrated its value in real-time use, offering high performance and smooth logistics.
- we were excited but also confident the system would deliver, says de Lima Ribeiro.
Since the festival site is located at Parc del Fòrum in Barcelona, they were able to connect to the public water supply. But with Jets® NOMAD, it’s also possible to transport water over distances of up to over one kilometre using the Jets® NOMAD Water Supply Unit or to use water from tanks or trucks.
For this festival, they also connected Jets® NOMAD to the public sewage system, allowing waste to be directed straight there. Waste is removed from the festival site the moment the user flushes the toilet – what could be better?
All three from JETS who were present to oversee installation and operation at the festival met with the ToiToi crew to ensure they received thorough training.
- They were positive and engaged, and we all learned a lot from each other. They’re going to face a new reality when it comes to toilet operations, says Lugrís.
- Jets® NOMAD and Jets® vacuum toilets allows us to deliver high hygiene standards, reduce water consumption, and simplify operations. This puts us at the forefront of sustainable event solutions, says Fernández Monje.
Sustainability that lifts the festival experience
Primavera Sound Barcelona has made sustainability a central part of the festival experience, with initiatives like reusable glasses, compostable tableware, and dedicated efforts to reduce resource use. As part of this, 85% of the toilets at Parc del Fòrum are equipped with water-saving systems, and wastewater is recirculated to achieve up to 90% water savings during the festival.
Jets® vacuum toilets fit seamlessly into this vision by minimising water consumption and ensuring efficient, hygienic waste handling, not only helping Primavera Sound deliver a better festival experience where people can focus on enjoying the music, food, and atmosphere, but also reducing the festival’s environmental footprint.
Why Jets® NOMAD Catcher Unit is the star in any festival
As at any festival, challenges came up. For vacuum toilets, it can be a challenge if users throw unwanted items into the toilets. That’s why JETS developed what has become the new star: the Jets® NOMAD Catcher Unit.
- This captures wet wipes and similar items, which not only reduces operational issues but also helps prevent unwanted materials from being released into the environment, says de Lima Ribeiro.
- When the facilities work, people notice. Not because they’re thinking about the technology, but because they don’t have to. They can focus on the music, the community, and the experience – exactly as it should be. Festivalgoers are happier, spend more time at the venue, and make more use of the other services on offer, like food and drink, Lugrís concludes.
Update your knowledge on hygienic and modern solutions for festival sanitation.