WaterAid built a 2.5m mud toilet at Glastonbury that melts in the rain

Raise awareness of WaterAid's Climate Fight campaign at the festival where 'toilets and mud are two things synonymous', and push governments to put clean water and sanitation at the forefront of the climate agenda.

Artists Sand In Your Eye spent over 40 hours building the Big Bog near the Pyramid Stage, modelled on WaterAid crew volunteer Tim Lloyd reading Glastonbury's Free Press; it sat alongside four functioning 'Good Loos' — the charity's environmentally friendly composting toilets.

No reach figures in the source; the sculpture carried WaterAid's Climate Fight message to festival crowds, with the charity calling on the UK government to 'lead the way' on water and sanitation in climate policy.

At Glastonbury Festival 2022, charity WaterAid unveiled 'the Big Bog': a 2.5-metre (8.2ft) toilet sculpture made of mud, presented near the Pyramid Stage to highlight that one in five people worldwide lack access to decent sanitation — and to connect that gap to the climate crisis. 'Toilets and mud are two things synonymous with festivals, and while this sculpture is a bit of fun, it relays an important message', said WaterAid CEO Tim Wainwright.

The sculpture's fragility was engineered on purpose. Created by artists Sand In Your Eye over more than 40 hours, the Big Bog was made susceptible to damage so it cracks if it gets too hot and washes away when it rains — a physical, watchable metaphor for a crisis that threatens millions of people's access to clean water and sanitation. 'The climate crisis is a water crisis', Wainwright said.

The toilet was modelled on a real person: WaterAid crew volunteer Tim Lloyd, captured reading Glastonbury's Free Press on the loo. 'It is an honour to be immortalised in mud here at Glastonbury', he said, hoping it would remind festival-goers queuing for drinks and toilets what life is like for the millions without clean water — 'everyone, everywhere deserves a clean, safe and reliable toilet'. The sculpture sat alongside four functioning 'Good Loos', WaterAid's environmentally friendly composting toilets.

Glastonbury's mud is the shared experience the audience arrived with — the sculpture hijacked the festival's most complained-about feature for a sanitation point.

Designed decay is the argument: visitors could watch heat crack and rain dissolve the work, experiencing water insecurity as spectacle.

Modelling it on a crew volunteer turned a stunt into a story, with a named, photographed 'everyman' delivering the plea.

Make the medium the message literally: a monument designed to fail in heat and rain demonstrates climate fragility better than any stat board.

The Big Bog stood near the Pyramid Stage through the June 2022 festival as the centre of WaterAid's Climate Fight push, alongside the four functioning Good Loos composting toilets.