RACHELLE STEWART
Peter Winter is going to the Mission Concert on Saturday. If he's lucky he'll see about 15 minutes of Eric Clapton - when he's not occupied cleaning the event's 350 Portaloos.
Peter is Hawke's Bay's own "Kenny", the fictitious Portaloo impresario who's the subject of an Australian mockumentary. And, like
Kenny, when it comes to talking portable toilets, Peter is passionate about doing the business.
Especially when it comes to the Mission Concert, which ranks alongside events such as the Big Day Out as the peak of a Portaloo operator's year.
"It's more than the number of loos last year as this concert just keeps getting bigger and bigger," says Peter, who will be arriving at the venue earlier than most to do final checks.
More than 25,000 people are expected at the sold-out concert.
"It's great business for us. Doing events like this I get to meet people from one end to the other," says Peter who tackles his job with a sense of humour.
"I have a good time and a lot of laughs. Whenever I shake someone's hand I tell them I clean portaloos," he says. Having been in the job for two years, he's seen some interesting sights.
"It amazes me that women don't actually know what the urinal is for in the portaloo. I once had a woman tell me that she loved that little shelf in the loo as it was perfect to rest her handbag in."
Peter, however, is very reassuring about the standard of hygiene in the portaloos.
"It's actually an ongoing thing all night; I only saw the last 10 minutes of Rod Stewart when he performed here," says Peter, who describes in great detail how the portaloos are cleaned with a waterblaster and disinfectant which kills 99.9 percent of all known bacteria.
"The women appreciate us putting in the effort to cleaning them. Then it's suddenly like there's a sale on and they're all fighting for the cleanest loo."
But although they are cleaned from top to bottom, people should still put their own hygiene skills to use.
"It amazes me how many people take food and drink in there," he says.
"People are grubby but it's all par for the course on the night. As far as the Mission goes, everyone has a good time and the portaloos just get hammered."
So has Peter seen the Kenny movie?
"No not yet, but everyone tells me I should go and see it." And what will Eric Clapton do if caught short?
"Eric will have his own portaloo, with a sink and rose- scented soap."
