Joe Williams, owner of Williams & Bay Pumping Services in Cedar, is catching his breath this week after what he described as the company’s “busiest weekend ever.”

That’s right, busy in porta-potties … or “comfort stations,” as the company calls them.

With northern Michigan’s ever-growing festival economy and all manner of outdoor celebrations, providers of portable toilets are stepping up in a big way to meet the demand. In the last 16 months, Williams says he has more than doubled his inventory to nearly 600 portable toilets.

This past weekend the company, which serves a 40-mile radius around Traverse City, provided “comfort stations” for the Traverse City Music Festival, the Cherry Bomb Lacrosse Tournament, in addition to a few smaller functions.

While the business is experiencing some growth from new, smaller festivals, Williams says the return of the construction industry has been the main driver of the boost in demand. Between delivery, pick-up and weekly maintenance for long-term rentals (i.e. construction sites), he dedicates four full-time employees to the portable restroom division of the business. And last weekend, he chipped in to help.

He also sees the business benefiting from more event planners who are budgeting properly for sanitation service needs – because there are few things that will drive people away from an event more quickly (sometimes to never return) than not enough, or poorly maintained, porta-potties.

The portable toilets themselves are also seen as more acceptable than they used to be, Williams noted – with designs and features that are making them much more comfortable than the porta-potties of old.

“If someone is having a party in their backyard for 25 people, they are renting one,” he adds.

And perhaps the best thing to happen to the porta-potty industry locally is the Lavabo restroom trailer, designed and built by Madeline and Jim Houdek of Houdek’s Pumping Service & Restroom Trailers in Lake Leelanau. A restroom trailer is essentially a standard bathroom on wheels.

The first one made its debut at the Leland Wine & Food Festival years ago and now the fleet has grown to six.

While the trailers are more expensive than the single units, they are increasingly being sought out for outdoor weddings and other special events where customers are looking for something a little nicer, Madeline Houdek says.

“We’ve had a fairly good year,” she adds.

And in a business that can be pretty dirty sometimes, a compliment never hurts.

More than once, after going to retrieve the trailer the day after a wedding, Houdek has heard: “The restroom was the talk of the night!"