Vodafone sees Glastonbury mobile data traffic usage rise 25%

Offering robust mobile connectivity is now table stakes for any large-scale musical or sporting event, and for the Glastonbury Festival, it’s more important than most. The event skews to digitally driven fans with huge expectations of service and, according to data from Vodafone, an appetite for data consumption during the recent 2025 edition.

The festival began in 1970, and has been based at the same location of Worthy Farm in Somerset in the south-west of England ever since. In 2025, it attracted a crowd of more than 200,000, taking in more than 3,000 performances spread across 100 stages, with headline acts including Rod Stewart, Neil Young, Charli xcx, The 1975, Olivia Rodrigo and Wolf Alice.

With the event set in open countryside with little permanent fibre or power presence, offering high-quality connectivity at Worthy Farm represents an immense technical challenge, and before the event, Glastonbury’s official connectivity partner, Vodafone, anticipated record demand, projecting 270TB of traffic on its network.

To ensure acceptable connectivity, Vodafone’s network was boosted to its highest capacity ever, with 11 temporary masts placed around Worthy Farm. Data released by the telco showed an increase of almost 25% in data usage traffic from last year’s festival.

Vodafone also powered the official Glastonbury app, which saw 250,000 total downloads from festival-goers onsite and those experiencing the event elsewhere, an all-time record for the telco. A total of 198,000 line-ups were created on the app, and each personal line-up had an average of 41 artists added as festival-goers plotted out their must-see acts for the weekend.

Vodafone also offered festival-goers the chance to test out its network through a free SIM network trial without users having to change their number. Almost 15,000 people were found to have ordered an eSIM at the 2025 event.

In addition to the eSIM trials, there were dedicated, custom 5G standalone (SA) network slices for payment terminals. Over 10,000 people also bought power banks at Vodafone’s on-site Connect & Charge tent.

Commenting on the company’s Glastonbury deployment, VodafoneThree chief network officer Andrea Dona said: “As ‘the nation’s network’, we’re all about connecting fans to some of the best events across the summer.

“Once again, we boosted our network to its highest capacity ever at Worthy Farm because we know how important it is for festival-goers to be able to easily connect with family and friends and share their favourite festival moments. I look forward to delivering even more for fans and customers across the summer and beyond.”

Just days ago, data from mobile analyst Ookla revealed how all of the UK’s mobile operators had improved their services to fans attending the landmark music event. Even though the network analysis shows Vodafone had lagged on key metrics – with some acute congestion issues on its network at the time – the data reveals Vodafone has delivered clear improvements in network performance compared with previous festivals.

Vodafone saw median download speeds rise by at least 25% year-on-year, indicating that its network investments have paid off.