Internet and Wi-Fi Service for Remote Location Music Festivals.

At one time a luxury, having connectivity on a remotely located site is now becoming an essential part of every music festival. Operationally critical systems increasingly rely on constant connectivity, which are mirrored by festival-goer expectations too. What are the key considerations in 2026 for organisers deploying festival site internet and Wi-Fi services.

Holding a music festival in a remote location presents numerous infrastructure challenges, and traditionally reliable internet connectivity has been difficult to implement often perceived as patchy at best. Advances in technology have provided new opportunities for festival organisers to implement robust connectivity solutions that provide fast and reliable coverage with no more ‘dead zones.’ What solutions are currently available to organisers when planning their next event.

Connectivity Options.
Wi-Fi services are always provided by an external third party, usually a well-known telecoms organisation, who are contracted to provide on-site connectivity. Selection of an appropriate supplier will usually involve an on-site survey to identify potential ‘dead zones’ enabling them to recommend the best options. In addition, suppliers should incorporate battery backups for network switches in case of power outages plus the provision of an on-site engineer to monitor bandwidth traffic. Remote locations now use Bonded Connectivity, which provides 100% uptime with specialist routers that merge multiple signals into a single one. Where there are no cell towers, or a mobile one is impractical, organisers can consider the Starlink system which provides low latency and high speeds. When combined with signals from other multiple carriers (bonded), it provides redundancy if satellite signals are obstructed. If the site is fortunate to be in direct line-of-sight of a fibre rich building, a fixed wireless signal can be beamed to the site.

Building on-site Connectivity.
If organisers select a service like the Starlink enterprise solution they can install Flat High-Performance dishes which are suitable for high density usage in extreme weather conditions and cost considerably less than deploying a dedicated mobile telecoms tower. Multiple dishes can provide a load balance array which ensures reliable uptime. Whether organisers choose Starlink or another service to bring internet signals to a site it must be distributed. This is usually done with an Outdoor Mesh Access Point which provides 6GHz bandwidth allowing about 10,000 individual Wi-Fi connections without impacting service. In addition, organisers often install dedicated private secure SSID connections for operational use.

Connectivity for Festival Operations.
Numerous operational infrastructure elements of a music festival rely on uninterrupted connectivity. Organisers will usually ‘silo’ bandwidth specifically for operational requirements to ensure it is not impacted by peaks in demand from festival-goers for example. Typical critical operational systems that cannot be disrupted by a loss in connectivity include POS terminals, ticketing systems, and medical facilities. Other internal systems that rely on connectivity can include staff Radio/Comms and event management software for artists and other important operational functions.

Festival-Goer Access.
Most festival-goers will wish to connect to Wi-Fi as soon as they arrive on site because mobile devices are used for multiple tasks including social media posts and streaming plus communications with friends. In addition, connectivity allows them to receive notifications, news, and updates from organisers. Some organisers turn Wi-Fi access into a revenue generation opportunity by offering a paid-for branded splash page to sponsors. Free access can be provided in exchange for data capture (answering a simple question) which provides insights for future marketing activity. Every festival-goer can be offered free Wi-Fi access (limited to 5Mbps) but for heavy data users (live streaming for example) a premium service can be purchased.

For festival organisers planning their next event using a software management platform like Festival Pro gives them all the functionality they need manage every aspect of their event logistics. The guys who are responsible for this software have been in the front line of event management for many years and the features are built from that experience and are performance artists themselves. The Festival Pro platform is easy to use and has comprehensive features with specific modules for managing artists, contractors, venues/stages, vendors, volunteers, sponsors, guestlists, ticketing, site planning, cashless payments and contactless ordering.

Image by Miguel Á. Padriñán via Pexels

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