Reading and Creamfields 2015: No North-South divide in festival WiFi coverage and logistics

intechnologyWiFi once again delivered its seamless, free WiFi solution at not one, but two of the UK’s most popular music festivals (Reading and Creamfields), which not only took place at the same time over the August Bank Holiday weekend (28–31 August), but also at opposite ends of the UK.

The challenge: Reading and Creamfields

In late last year, intechnologyWiFi were awarded the contract to provide free WiFi at Live Nation Entertainment’s largest summer 2015 festivals (Download, Latitude, Reading and Creamfields). Having already implemented its solution to great success at Download (the UK’s most popular rock and heavy music festival) in June, and the Suffolk-based ‘boutique’ event, Latitude in July, the August Bank Holiday brought the final two dates on the intechnologyWiFi summer festival calendar.

Reading Festival has been the eponymous rock, alternative and indie music summer event since the 1980s, with a daily capacity of 90,000, while Creamfields is the UK’s largest dance music festival, serving a daily capacity of 70,000.

The two festivals required intechnologyWiFi to serve up a robust and seamless free WiFi solution to a combined capacity of 160,000 people at two sites at opposite ends of the UK – Reading in the heart of Berkshire and Creamfields, based in Daresbury (near Warrington), Cheshire. Certainly no mean feat!

The solution

intechnologyWiFi owns all of its hardware and software and possesses the in-house expertise required to design, install and maintain a seamless public WiFi network from conception to completion, so the installation of the WiFi infrastructure at both Reading and Creamfields took place during just seven days prior to the event, led by a dedicated team of 16 highly trained engineers.

Natalie Duffield, the CEO of intechnologyWiFi, commented, “Both the technical and logistical aspects of the intechnologyWiFi WiFi solution are completely scalable, so we relish the opportunity to prove ourselves as a company in situations such as the concurrent delivery of Reading and Creamfields.”

The client’s coverage requirements were different for the two festivals, meaning the solution was tailored to specific areas of the two sites, serving a wide range of attendees. At Reading, WiFi was provided across the main arena, camping and hospitality areas, while the service at Creamfields covered the main arena, campsites, bar areas and funfair.

The outcome

Both festivals saw leading artists take the stage, with Mumford & Sons and Metallica filling the headline slots at Reading, while Creamfields welcomed The Chemical Brothers and Armin Van Buuren.

Over 23,000 unique users took advantage of the free WiFi provided across the two festivals, consuming a total of nearly 7TB of data – the equivalent of sharing 33 million photos, 610,000 video clips or nearly 100 million tweets!

Reading Festival WiFi usage: Key stats

• 3.4TB data passed over the network
• 9,304 concurrent users at peak
• 73% iOS users; 25% Android users; 2% Others

Creamfields Festival WiFi usage: Key stats

• • 3.6TB data passed over the network
  • 11,316 concurrent users at peak
  • 75% iOS users; 22% Android users; 3% Others

The seamless delivery of free WiFi to both the Reading and Creamfields festivals over the same weekend is an endorsement, both of the technical and logistical capabilities of the intechnologyWiFi festival offering.