Download Festival Toilet Policy

[CremeEggsForBreakfast]

Download Festival recently put out a statement saying:

"We will be following the interim guidance issued by the Equalities and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) on 25 April 2025 here. Their guidance states that "trans women (biological men) should not be permitted to use the women's facilities and trans men (biological women) should not be permitted to use the men's facilities."

There was then a backlash and they've done a 180° and said:
"At the heart of Download is acceptance- we stand with all members of our Community and want everyone to feel safe, supported and welcome at the festival. We want to reassure all of our customers that at Download, the majority of toilets will be gender neutral and available to all. There will also be single sex toilets provided. Download Festival has always been and remains for everyone. We sincerely apologise that a previous communication on this was not clear. We are looking forward to seeing you at Download this year."

It's so disappointing that an announcement has to be made on who can use which loo in the first place but to not even stand firm on it is...we'll, I'm speechless in all honesty.

One of the more high profile criticisms was from Noah Finnce (nope, I've no idea either) who said
"How have you got the gall to invite trans people like me to play your festival and then ban them from using the toilet? If the only way we can piss is by outing ourselves then you’ve created an unsafe environment…"
Can Noah not see that

1. Noah was never banned from using the toilet in the first place and that
2. If there only way women can piss is in the same room as men then Download have crashed an unsafe environment.

Noah or whatever is very much "out" so presumably already unsafe?

It’s all quite depressing.

There's already quite a long thread about this!

Very sad, Noah came out as transgender in 2017 (when they started taking T) but not diagnosed with ADHD until 2021 and talked about their autism diagnosis in 2024, which I assume was around then, given they wrote/recorded a song called Alexithymia then too. Ie. Began treatment for GD before ever being investigated for ND.

https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/download-festival-gender-neutral-toilets-trans-bathroom-controversy/

Wouldn't a festival just have horrible unisex portaloos? Bit confused about how this has come up.

it's been a while, but aren't the traditional closed door (unisex) festival toilets uniformly really grim? I'd have thought that anyone with a penis would prefer to use the banks of urinals that they have there, anyone without will have to go with the alternative? maybe festivals are the one place where mens and unisex are two categories that make sense.

And the queues for the actual portaloo

Christ, the queues! shudders

Noah got a bit of stick in the past because they believe you need to suffer gender dysphoria to qualify as transgender - they appear to have little time for those they perceive as playing at trans. Yes, the gender dysphoria was diagnosed and acted upon well before any of their neurodiversity. I remember watching their early videos back in 2017 - a lovely, exuberant personality - produced You Tube videos bouncing off the walls of the bedroom of their naval cadet boarding school. I always wondered why they were at boarding school - they never came across as particularly privileged. Although the parents must have paid for the schooling and the surgery.

Has a very loyal following, and when I see them rocking out on stage, I wish they were still up there presenting as a young woman - giving the finger to a sexist music business in the best way possible.

And, yes, every festival I’ve gone to has involved those hideous enclosed portaloos - most men choosing to p**s in the bushes, behind tents etc… Any of the acts usually have more personal toilets/trailers backstage.

There is a lot of moaning going on and it’s not going to quieten down any time soon. I’m constantly gritting my teeth and worry about my DC going off to Uni - seeing all those letters signed by ‘Feminist’ Academics expressing their horror at the protection of single sex spaces.

The messages aren’t a 180. The first message was unclear because it didn’t mention that there would also be unisex toilets available.
Isn’t this the ideal solution though? We can quibble about numbers of each sort of toilet but having some gender neutral toilets and some single-sex only toilets is surely the only sane way to accommodate everyone.

I think I'm missing something.
There will be single sex toilets for those who wish to use them so what's the problem?

What 180 did they do? As far as I remember, Download has had mixed sex toilets for ages plus single sex. All they did was confirm that their single sex toilets really will be single sex according to the equality act. Then they issued a second statement clarifying that there are also mixed sex available for anyone to use, alongside their single sex toilets.

Where is the 180?

Having been to download festival for 20 years, they do have, and always have had, a majority of unisex toilets.
I don't see their statement as a u-turn at all, more of a clarification.

I’m going to Download this year and saw when this all started kicking off with the original screenshot being shared and spread about trying to drum up outrage across the different groups.
What I have actually been really surprised about is the number of gender critical messages posted in the responses with really reasoned and thought out arguments. There are a lot of people sharing the same views.

it's all a bit storm in a teacup isn't it?
How is that trans artist being outed - they are as out as it is possible to be.

There will be, as there are at most festivals, a mix of (disgusting) unisex and (disgusting) single sex toilets.

But we're back at the "if i have to use the mens toilets then everyone will know i'm a transwoman not a woman" as if nobody can ever tell...

I don't really undersrand the problem. I've been to a lot of festivals and outdoor events and most festivals just have urinals and then ranks of single cubicle portaloos that both sexes use.

Amd TBH most queues for toilets at festivals are so chaotic no one really notices who is in the queue.

So the MAJORITY will be unisex and some male and female toilets? Why not the other way round? MAJORITY single sex and a few unisex would be more sensible.

No, not a festival. It’s always been majority mixed sex portaloos with a few single sex. Something even “posh loos” for £3 😂.

Festivals having mostly mixed sex has been going on for decades.

The main aim for festival loos is to ensure people can go to the toilet as quickly and hygienically as possible. Through put is everything. Anything else is a disaster.

We went to an event in a London venue last year where, for some inexplicible reason they had made both of the old fashioned single sex loos "all gender" for the duration of the event. Mr Monkey came back from the loos raging as they had apparently cordoned off the urinals in the gents - leading to long queues of angry men, several pints of beer down.