THOUSANDS of festival fans who are today turning up at Glastonbury have an East Yorkshire man to thank for taming the event's traditionally terrible toilets.

Most 'Glasto' goers would agree they have the time of their lives at the festival, but are also agree they need to hold their noses whenever they get the call of nature.

But, thanks to Steve Parker, of Pocklington-based company BAC to Nature, at least some of the water closets will smell wonderful.

Thousands of litres of his special, 100 per cent organic odour eliminator product have already winged their way to Worthy Farm, where the festival is held.

He is hoping it will have a similar result to when it was first used, at the 1999 event.

Steve said: "There were 45 long-drop toilets and the product eliminated the smell in them very effectively.

"This year there are slightly more long-drops apparently, the product will handle them no problem.

"Probably the biggest achievement that year though was when the product was used on the slurry lagoon.

"Between 400 and 500 litres were poured into it. Twenty-four hours later festival organiser Michael Eavis was rowing across it.

"The smell had gone completely."

The long-drop toilets differ from Portaloo-style conveniences in they come in banks of 20 or more and have one large metal pit underneath.

Steve discovered the formula for his odour eliminator accidentally, while trying to find a way to get toxins to degrade more quickly.

It has a number of other uses, including pet cleaning and dealing with agricultural slurry, which is where the Glastonbury contact came from.

He added: "DEFRA recommended us to the Glastonbury organisers, who got in touch, and the rest is history.

"One thing we are working on is finding a way to get the product to work on the festival's 2,310 portable plastic toilets.

"We aren't there yet, but we are hoping to come up with something for next year."

Emily Eavis, daughter of festival organiser Michael, said: "It has really changed the scent of the farm, and I live in the farmhouse so I should know."

Updated: 12:31 Friday, June 28, 2002