How IoT is Reshaping Music Festivals

Festival season is well underway – every year since 2020, global attendee numbers have steadily increased. This summer, the world's largest festivals like Glastonbury, Tomorrowland, and Primavera Sound, will each host hundreds of thousands of music fans.

Events of this scale present unique logistical challenges – from crowd safety to VIP hospitality, nearly every aspect of a music festival is planned months in advance. In a crowded field, organizers are constantly looking for new methods to ease the process and provide as smooth and safe an experience as possible.

While sleeping in a field and living off cereal bars and cider for five days straight may feel like a back-to-basics experience, music festivals are often powered by cutting-edge tech. From smart bins to 5G mobile networks, every year sees new innovations make their festival debut. Like linear array speakers or giant LED screens, Internet of Things (IoT) devices are fast becoming an essential tool for live events.

The Internet of Things

The Internet of Things (IoT) describes the global network of connected devices that communicate with one another via wireless connections. Essentially, any device that wirelessly transmits or receives data from another is part of the Internet of Things. These range from everyday items like smart doorbells or Bluetooth headphones to industrial machinery. Advancements in wireless technology and mobile data networks have enabled near-exponential growth in the IoT industry: by 2028, the market value is set to exceed $1.75 trillion.

In the context of a large-scale music festival, live performances are just one of the many uses for IoT devices. As a societal microcosm, music festivals function as proving grounds for new public-facing technologies. Companies “live test” new connected devices and technologies at events to assess and advertise their capabilities before committing to a full product launch. 

Denmark's Roskilde Festival, for example, has an ongoing partnership with the Danish Technical University (DTU), where engineering students are encouraged to build and trial new inventions specifically for the festival. In such a complex space, the usages of IoT are still being explored.

7 IoT applications in music festivals

1. Staging

The Internet of Things is everywhere on stage, connecting microphones, amplifiers, lighting, and effects units. Wireless instrument and amplifier connections require extremely low latency levels, with no discernible lag between the performer’s input and the projected sound. This is only possible with an industry-leading cellular connection, ideally through a redundant IoT network like 1GLOBAL that virtually eliminates the risk of slowed or dropped network connections.

2. Crew

While the reliable walkie-talkie is still a standard tool for on-site festival crews, improved data networks are increasingly enabling them to use their own smartphones instead (a policy known as BYOD, or bring-your-own-device). On a reliable, geo-redundant mobile network like 1GLOBAL, smartphones allow team members to communicate through text and media as well as voice calling, while upholding workplace data security requirements.

3. Payments

Wireless point-of-sale (POS) systems are increasingly a viable option, even in crowded areas like festivals. These terminals provide vendors with a fast and convenient way to process transactions, without having to handle and store cash in a festival environment.

Since 2022, Coachella, the USA’s largest music festival, has been an entirely cashless event, with vendors relying on wireless POS systems to process transactions in the middle of the Californian desert. For organizers, cashless systems discourage theft and provide one less thing for festivalgoers to worry about losing or leaving in their tent.

A wireless POS is only as good as the network it’s connected to, however. Services like SafeRetail by 1GLOBAL eliminate the risk of network downtime, even in crowded events, by automatically connecting the terminals to the strongest of several local mobile networks.

4. Smart wristbands

Many events, from the multi-day EDM extravaganza Tomorrowland to the Netherlands’ boutique Lentekabinet, have taken the cashless concept even further and made IoT-powered wristbands the sole accepted payment method. On arrival, guests are supplied with an RFID band which is digitally “topped up” with money on entry and used for all transactions throughout the festival grounds. Organizers argue that this speeds up queues and prevents loss of personal goods. For vendors, RFID wristbands increase sales by making purchases far faster and easier.

5. Security

While the permissive ethos of most festivals clashes with the concept of increasingly sophisticated surveillance technology, event security is a growing market. Similar to wireless IoT security cameras and scanners deployed in smart cities, modern festivals use wireless cameras, alarms, and sensors with automated alert capabilities and facial recognition software to provide security teams with real-time alerts.

6. Smart gates

Already a fixture in many stadiums and brick-and-mortar event venues, improvements in mobile data and IoT networks have seen smart ticket gates appear at festivals too. By scanning a digital QR code rather than checking a physical ticket, these gates speed up the queuing process and provide event staff with more time to attend to the crowd in busy areas like entrance gates.

7. Social Media

Festivals recognize the value of social media. This year, Coachella constructed a series of artist-designed advertising billboards in the run-up to the event in a calculated bid for online virality.

For artists, festivals are essential opportunities for building a fan base, with social media a vital aspect. Entire sets are often live-streamed, placing severe pressure on local data connections.

For many fans, attending a festival without recording or sharing the experience is unthinkable – even Nevada's purportedly “off-grid” Burning Man festival has been tagged in over two million Instagram posts. Ensuring that guests, artists, and staff can all continually upload and stream performances from the midst of the event requires vast volumes of mobile data and consistently high data speeds. A multi-carrier network like 1GLOBAL helps to provide this by continually connecting to the best available local network.

Tradition meets technology at Glastonbury

The UK's largest music festival has always been slightly at odds with its peers.

Founded in 1970 and still run by the same family today, Glastonbury has managed to grow every year despite rejecting much of the commercialization of other comparable events. The event prides itself on advocating for environmental protection, charitable donations, and a liberal outlook.

While it still upholds its founding principles and anti-establishment ethos, the festival has continually embraced technological advancements to manage the growing crowds and deliver increasingly sophisticated shows.

In 2025, Glastonbury will welcome over 200,000 attendees. For the better part of a week, Worthy Farm in Somerset will transform into a temporary city. Like a city, it requires infrastructure: temporary sewage, lighting, and water networks are all constructed in the months leading up to the event. Increasingly, this includes electricity and telecommunications. For the 2025 edition, mobile data consumption is expected to exceed 200 terabytes. To cope with this unprecedented demand, Glastonbury has erected 10 temporary mobile masts to deliver event-wide 5G coverage.

The dense, lower-range capabilities of 5G networks are particularly suited to crowded, localized spaces like music festivals and stadiums. Many of us will be familiar with fruitless searches for cell signal in these spaces during the days of 3G and 4G coverage. 5G networks promise to make this a thing of the past.

Elsewhere, the festival will erect dedicated phone charging tents with queues around the clock. This year, the network operator Vodafone will also be giving away thousands of free eSIMs to attendees as a promotional tool.

Each eSIM allows temporary access to the local 5G network, providing Vodafone with a simple way to trial and promote their coverage to thousands of new potential customers. This reflects a widening public awareness of eSIMs and the ongoing rise in eSIM-enabled mobile devices.

A few years ago, reliable phone coverage and data usage in crowded arenas was a pipe dream. Today, it’s becoming a standard expectation at large events, even in remote festival grounds.

IoT and connectivity challenges at festivals

Despite the recent surge in IoT capabilities, providing mobile connectivity at mass gatherings is still a challenge.

• Reliable coverage and failover protection: Relying on a single network operator for all connectivity leaves events exposed to the risk of network outages and downtime. In festivals in rural or remote areas, this can be disastrous. Events require a partner like 1GLOBAL, which provides access to over 600+ partner operators in one core global network. IoT devices with a 1GLOBAL eSIM or SIM card automatically remain connected to the best of several local mobile networks (an average of 3+ per country). This effectively eliminates downtime — if one network falters, the devices are automatically reconnected to the next one, avoiding outages.

• Managing data spikes: Data usage among festivalgoers is inconsistent and unpredictable. Similar to booking the right acts for the right-sized stages, anticipating data requirements throughout a multi-day event is an inexact science. Data spikes that slow or even prevent mobile network access are a constant concern. Again, relying on a single local provider does not adequately protect against this risk. Only a global core mobile network like 1GLOBAL can ensure automatic network switching across all connected devices and deliver seamless mobile connection throughout varying local data usages.

The future of wireless event technology

From Coachella to Glastonbury, IoT and eSIM technology has become an integral part of the festival experience. As public adoption of eSIMs continues to grow, wireless tech has become a regular sight at concerts and conferences around the world.

1GLOBAL IoT

Whether it’s a local festival or a multinational enterprise, 1GLOBAL has proven success in in delivering IoT solutions to a wide range of organizations.

Since 2018, we’ve helped dozens of companies with their digital transformations and helped to develop sustainable, scalable, IoT infrastructures that prepare them for the current surge of connected device usage and mobile data demands.

Festivals, sports games, conferences and events require scalable IoT solutions that can adapt to this growth without compromising on security, connection quality, or personalized service.

1GLOBAL IoT solutions are specifically designed for these scalable use cases. With a globally redundant core network, multilingual service teams, and full SGP.32 support, 1GLOBAL IoT delivers personalized solutions. Contact our team directly to learn more about how 1GLOBAL IoT services can benefit your company.