Cellular Capacity at Festivals: Carriers, COWs, and DAS

Cellular connectivity is the invisible backbone of modern large-scale festivals. Whether it’s fans livestreaming their favourite set, food vendors processing card payments, or security teams coordinating via apps, a reliable network keeps everything running. Large crowds can overwhelm cellular networks (www.theguardian.com), making proactive planning crucial. Seasoned festival organisers understand that robust connectivity isn’t a luxury – it’s a necessity for both commerce and safety.

Partner Early with Carriers for Coverage Boosts

Engage mobile carriers months in advance to ensure adequate coverage at your festival site. Major telecom providers often have dedicated “special events” teams that plan temporary infrastructure deployments well ahead of time. By partnering early, you can secure Cells on Wheels (COWs) – mobile cell towers – or arrange for a Distributed Antenna System (DAS) in venues that require indoor coverage. For example, Vodafone UK’s special events team starts planning months in advance for summer festivals, deploying COWs to handle surges in demand. In the US, AT&T has rolled out experimental antennas at Coachella to support tens of thousands of attendees using mobile data (www.mobilesportsreport.com). Early coordination with carriers also opens doors to sponsorships or official “connectivity partner” arrangements, as seen with festivals like Glastonbury (previously partnered with EE and now with Vodafone) (www.theguardian.com). Such partnerships can bring in technical support, on-site engineers, and even marketing benefits (e.g. charging stations or Wi-Fi hotspots branded by the carrier).

Include all major carriers in your planning if possible. Remember that festival-goers use different providers – ensuring only one network is boosted could still leave many attendees in the dark. Large events in Europe like Glastonbury Festival see participation from multiple operators: in 2024 Vodafone deployed 10 temporary masts, EE set up 9 sites (including some permanent installs), Virgin Media O2 added 8, and Three provided 6 – all to serve over 200,000 attendees (www.ccsinsight.com) (www.ccsinsight.com). Each carrier brought their own equipment to maximize coverage and capacity. Working with all relevant carriers (or a neutral host provider that aggregates coverage) ensures no segment of your audience is left with “No Signal” on show day.

Understanding COWs and Temporary Towers

COWs (Cell on Wheels) are portable cell towers – typically truck- or trailer-mounted antennas and base stations – that can be driven onto a site to boost cellular capacity. They create additional “cells” in the network, easing the load on permanent towers that would otherwise saturate under festival crowds (www.theguardian.com) (www.theguardian.com). A single COW can handle thousands of devices, but the number needed depends on terrain, audience size, and data demand. For instance, a smaller festival like Splendour in the Grass in Australia (?25,000 attendees) might get by with one or two COWs (www.zdnet.com), whereas a massive event like Glastonbury required around 10 COWs in 2024 to carry an unprecedented 225 terabytes of data traffic generated by festival-goers (www.subtonomy.com). These mobile masts typically support 4G LTE and increasingly 5G, providing extra voice and data channels right where the crowd is.

When deploying COWs, location is everything. Work with carrier engineers to place these units with optimal line-of-sight over your main audience areas. The antennas should ideally tower above obstructions (stage structures, tents, buildings) and cover high-density zones like stages, concession areas, and camping sites. If your festival spans a large area or has multiple stages far apart, plan for multiple COW placements or smaller “small cell” nodes to blanket the grounds. Also, consider elevation – even a slight hill or the side of a stadium can shadow the signal, so placement might involve putting COWs on higher ground or even mounting antennas on temporary scaffolding or rooftops.

Provide power reliability for any on-site towers. COWs require significant power for their transmitters and often have air-conditioned equipment cabinets. Arrange for generator backup and fuel, even if they are plugged into local grid power, to ensure the cellular equipment never goes dark. Redundant power supply (and even redundant units in critical spots) is a wise precaution – you don’t want a single tripped breaker or empty fuel tank to knock out communications for thousands of people.

In-Building Systems (DAS) for Venues

If your event takes place in a large indoor venue – such as a convention centre, arena, or a stadium – you’ll likely need a Distributed Antenna System (DAS) to handle cellular traffic. A DAS consists of numerous small antennas distributed throughout the venue (ceilings, walls, stages) connected to a central hub. These act like mini cell towers inside, ensuring that dense crowds under a roof still get strong signals. Many stadium-based festivals or concerts leverage existing DAS deployments; for example, major sports venues hosting concerts have carrier-built DAS that can be tuned or upgraded for the event. Always check the venue’s connectivity infrastructure during site selection and collaborate with the venue and carriers on any necessary upgrades or temporary capacity additions.

Installing or augmenting a DAS is not an overnight task – it requires design, cabling, and hardware installation, often with carrier involvement for integration into their networks. Hence, loop this into your early planning as well. In some cases, venues might allow a neutral host DAS where multiple carriers share the system. The key is to ensure that no corner of your festival is a dead zone, whether attendees are dancing on a main floor or shopping in an exhibition hall. Strong indoor coverage also supports vendor payment systems, staff radios that use Wi-Fi/cellular, and any festival apps or RFID wristband systems operating inside.

Prioritize Safety and Transactions in Bandwidth Planning

Not all connectivity needs are equal. In designing your event’s network plan, protect the critical communications and commerce channels first. This means ensuring that emergency services, event security, and essential operations have guaranteed connectivity even at peak crowd usage. Many festival organisers issue staff and security teams with radios for voice communication as a primary tool – but they may also use smartphones or tablets for incident reporting, internal apps, or receiving emergency alerts. Work with carriers to possibly prioritize certain devices or traffic (some carriers offer priority access SIM cards or network slices for first responders and key personnel). At minimum, set up a dedicated secure Wi-Fi network for staff and production use, separate from any public Wi-Fi, to keep mission-critical data flowing.

Point-of-sale (POS) and payment systems come next in priority. With the live event industry increasingly going cashless, a dropped connection can mean halted sales and frustrated customers. Imagine food stalls and bars unable to process payments during the dinner rush – lost revenue and long lines ensue. To avoid this, consider providing vendors with either a hardwired ethernet connection (if feasible in a fixed venue) or a private Wi-Fi network that connects to a reliable backhaul. Some festivals supply vendors with SIM cards from a carrier that is known to have strong coverage on-site, or even multiple SIMs from different carriers as backup. Train vendors on offline payment modes if your payment system supports it – for instance, some POS systems can store transactions to sync later if connectivity blips, but this should be a fallback, not the norm. Testing each vendor’s setup during rehearsals or the day-before setup can catch configuration issues early (such as a card reader that hasn’t been updated or logged in).

Your festival app and attendee-facing digital services are another important consideration. Whether your event has an official scheduling app, AR experiences, or simply relies on attendees using social media, plan network capacity to handle it. Festival apps often provide offline schedules and maps (knowing connectivity can be spotty), but features like real-time updates, friend-finder functions, or live polls will need connectivity. If you plan interactive elements (e.g. live voting via the app, or an interactive light-up wristband controlled via Wi-Fi/cellular), make sure to allocate extra bandwidth specifically for these. One strategy is to time your push notifications or bandwidth-heavy activities for moments when network usage might be lower (for example, avoid sending out a festival-wide app notification right when a headliner finishes and tens of thousands of people jump on their phones).

Importantly, communicate with your audience about connectivity expectations. Encourage attendees to download the festival app, maps, or tickets before arriving. It can also help to publish a tip that if cellular networks are congested, text messages may go through more reliably than voice calls in an emergency. By setting expectations (without discouraging usage entirely), you prepare festival-goers and reduce pressure on networks for non-essential tasks.

Site Layout, Line-of-Sight, and Technical Logistics

The production team should incorporate connectivity into the overall site layout design. Treat cell towers and networking gear like another piece of critical infrastructure (just as important as staging, power, or water). Work with the carrier’s technicians to choose COW spots with clear line-of-sight and central coverage. Often, this means near the perimeter of the main audience areas, or adjacent to big open spaces where crowds gather, aiming inward. Keep COWs out of high-traffic pedestrian areas for safety – typically they will be in backstage or restricted zones, fenced off for security. Remember COWs usually come on trailers or trucks, so ensure there is a stable access road to drive them in and a relatively flat surface to park.

If your festival covers multiple zones (e.g., stages in different fields, a camping village, parking lots), evaluate each for coverage. You might need a combination of one large COW and several smaller portable repeaters or “micro COWs.” These smaller units can be mounted on poles or existing structures to fill in gaps (for instance, a second stage around a wooded bend might need a small cell to get around the tree blockage). Avoid physical obstructions: even a sea of human bodies can attenuate signal (www.theguardian.com), and things like metal scaffolding, shipping containers, or dense foliage are worse. Antennas might need to be elevated above a stage roof or placed at opposite ends of a field to overlap coverage.

Be mindful of interference and coordination. If multiple carriers are deploying equipment, their engineers will coordinate frequencies and placement – facilitate their collaboration by hosting joint site visits or at least sharing your site maps and schedule with all. You might also be bringing in portable Wi-Fi networks (for staff or public). If so, design the Wi-Fi channels and access points in harmony with the cellular layout. For instance, avoid putting a Wi-Fi access point on the same frequency band right next to a cellular booster to prevent signal noise. Professional network planners can conduct a spectrum analysis of your site ahead of time to identify any existing radio interference (from nearby TV towers, other events, etc.) that needs mitigation.

Finally, ensure redundancy in backhaul – the connection from those COWs and Wi-Fi networks back to the internet. Often, COWs will use microwave links to a distant cell tower or fiber link. If your entire festival relies on one microwave backhaul and it fails, all those extra antennas won’t help. Whenever possible, arrange for a backup data link. This could mean having two microwave paths from different directions, or a satellite internet backup for mission-critical traffic, or negotiating with a local ISP for a temporary wired fiber connection in addition to wireless. It might add cost, but it’s an insurance policy against a connectivity collapse.

Test Under Load Before Opening

A network that works for 100 people during setup might buckle under 50,000 on show day. So, test under load before the doors open. This can be challenging – you won’t have a full crowd to truly simulate usage – but you can still perform robust stress tests. One approach is to have all staff and vendors use the network simultaneously during the final rehearsal or soundcheck. Have vendors run test transactions at the same planned time to mimic peak concession hours. If you have volunteers or street team members, invite some to come on-site with their phones to generate data traffic (stream videos, open the app, send messages) as a pseudo-crowd for an hour.

Work with the carriers to run diagnostics during these tests. They can monitor signal strength, data throughput, and any signs of overload. It’s better to discover a weak coverage pocket or an overloaded node on the eve of the festival (when there might be time to tweak antenna angles or deploy another small cell) than on show day. If you’ve set up dedicated Wi-Fi for operations or POS, check that all devices connect properly and that login credentials or captive portals are not hindering anyone. Run through failure scenarios too: unplug one power source to confirm the backup takes over seamlessly; disable one COW briefly to ensure overlapping coverage fills in; and verify that your staff’s radios or backup communication tools work in case the worst happens.

Also, test any festival tech that rides on the network. If you’re using a live tracking app for shuttle buses, do a dry run with the shuttles and see if the updates appear. If your ticket scanning devices (for example, those provided by Ticket Fairy’s entry system) require connectivity, try scanning test tickets with and without network to see how it behaves. (Modern ticketing systems often have offline modes for scans, but real-time validation and anti-fraud features work best with a live connection.) Similarly, test the delivery of emergency notifications: if you plan to send an SMS blast or app notification to attendees during the event, send a test message to a small group to gauge speed and reliability.

Connectivity is Commerce and Safety

In the end, a festival’s success isn’t measured only by the performances on stage – it’s also in the countless transactions and safety incidents handled smoothly behind the scenes. Every cashless payment that sails through, every medical call that reaches the right team instantly, and every happy fan FaceTiming their friends from the crowd is a sign that your connectivity planning paid off. On the flip side, network failures can quickly cascade into operational nightmares: e.g. payment outages leading to lost revenue and disgruntled attendees, or lack of signal delaying an emergency response. The stakes are high, but that’s exactly why top festival producers treat communications infrastructure with the same seriousness as power, staging, or artist hospitality.

Modern audiences expect to stay connected. They will share their experiences on social media – effectively turning your festival into a live advertisement to thousands more people – but only if they have a signal. More practically, local authorities and safety regulations might even require certain communication capabilities (for instance, an emergency hotline or the ability to reach all patrons via text in a crisis). By investing in robust cellular and Wi-Fi arrangements, you’re investing in guest experience, safety compliance, and revenue protection all at once.

Staying ahead of the demand is a continuous learning process. After each event, debrief with the carriers and tech teams: review the data usage stats, identify any slowdowns, and gather feedback from vendors about their connectivity. This will help improve the plan for the next year. The trend is that data usage at events keeps rising – for example, over a few years, Coachella and Glastonbury have seen mobile data records broken repeatedly as attendees engage more online (www.mobilesportsreport.com) (www.subtonomy.com). With the rollout of 5G and eventually 6G, capacity will grow, but user expectations will likely grow faster. Smart festival organisers will continue to innovate, whether that means deploying the latest tech or simply doubling down on fundamentals like COW placement and proper planning.

Bottom line: robust connectivity is no longer optional for large-scale festivals. It’s an essential service that underpins almost every aspect of the event. Treat it as such – plan early, invest wisely, and never leave it to chance.

Key Takeaways

• Plan connectivity early: Involve cellular carriers and network providers from the beginning. Early partnerships can secure temporary towers (COWs) and in-building DAS installations in time for the festival.
• Boost all major networks: Don’t just cater to one carrier. Coordinate with every major mobile provider in your region so all attendees (and staff) have coverage, regardless of their phone network.
• Strategic tower placement: Position COWs and antennas with clear line-of-sight over crowds. Use multiple units or small cells to cover large or obstructed sites, and always provide backup power for these critical assets.
• Prioritize critical traffic: Safeguard channels for emergency responders, staff communications, and point-of-sale systems. Use separate networks (or carrier QoS features) to ensure safety and payment data isn’t bogged down by guest Instagram uploads.
• Test under real-world conditions: Simulate heavy usage before gates open. Conduct full load tests with staff and vendors, and resolve any weak spots or failures before the public arrives.
• Have backup plans: Prepare for network hiccups. Enable offline modes for ticket scanning and payments, have radio comms as a fallback, and consider backup backhaul links. Redundancy is key.
• Connectivity enhances experience & safety: Remember that a well-connected festival means more revenue, smoother operations, and happier, safer attendees. In today’s festivals, connectivity is as crucial as electricity and running water – it keeps the music playing in more ways than one.