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# Choosing a Festival Charging Provider: 8 Questions to Ask
- URL: https://resources.getvolt.dk/articles/8-questions-to-ask-before-signing-a-festival-charging-provider/
- Published: 2026-08-05T12:22:17.000Z
- Updated: 2026-08-10T22:13:07.000Z
- Description: Eight questions worth asking any festival charging provider before you sign: pricing, staffing, insurance, festival goer data, contracts, and references.
- Author: The Volt Team
- Tags: article, For Organisers, Charging

# 8 Questions Every Festival Organiser Should Ask Before Signing With a Charging Provider

Most festival organisers land on the same charging conversation eventually: a tight decision window, two or three calls with vendors who all sound confident, and a signature needed before the site plan locks. The questions that actually separate a good charging partner from a bad one repeat across almost every one of those conversations. Here are the eight worth asking before you sign, and what an honest answer sounds like next to a rehearsed one.

## 1\. What's actually included in the price, and what's a billable extra?

Charging vendors quote in different currencies: a flat site fee, a rate based on footfall, or a revenue share on what festival goers pay to charge or swap. None of these is automatically better, but the number on the first email rarely includes delivery, staffing, damage waivers or teardown, and those show up later as line items. Ask for the full cost stack in writing before comparing two quotes that look nothing alike once the extras land. If a vendor proposes a revenue share, ask them to walk the math for your expected footfall rather than quoting a headline percentage; we've laid out exactly that kind of worked math for [how a revenue share actually pays out for an organiser](https://resources.getvolt.dk/articles/event-locker-cost-for-organisers-revenue-share-explained/) on the storage side, and the same logic carries over to charging.

## 2\. Who is actually on-site, and what's the real response time when a unit fails?

"Fully staffed" and "remotely monitored" describe very different failure modes. A charging tower that stops dispensing at 11pm on a Saturday is either fixed in minutes by someone standing next to it, or it sits dead until whoever is on call can get through the crowd. Push past the brochure language: ask for the actual staff-to-unit ratio, the shift pattern across a multi-day event, and what happens between the last staffed hour and the first one the next day. A festival contract should spell out service levels the same way it spells out load-in times, with named consequences, not just intentions, if the vendor misses them.

## 3\. What insurance do you carry, and will you name us as additional insured?

This is the question vendors expect least and answer worst. A festival's own event insurance does not automatically extend to a third-party vendor's hardware or the festival goers interacting with it, and asking a vendor to be named as additional insured on their own policy is standard practice, not an unusual demand. Vendor liability programmes built for events typically bundle general liability with contractual liability and personal and advertising injury cover, and let a vendor add equipment cover on top for their own hardware, insured to full replacement value ([K&K Insurance's event vendor liability programme ↗](https://www.kandkinsurance.com/programs/event-insurance/vendor-liability-insurance?ref=resources.getvolt.dk) is a useful reference for what that typically looks like). Festival contract-clause guidance puts the going benchmark for vendor coverage at roughly [$1 million per occurrence, with the festival named as additional insured ↗](https://www.ticketfairy.com/blog/the-fine-print-that-saves-festivals-overlooked-contract-clauses-you-need-in-2026?ref=resources.getvolt.dk). If a vendor hesitates on either point, that is the answer.

## 4\. What happens to our festival goers' data once you have it?

Charging that runs on pre-booking or a swap system usually needs a phone number or an email address to send an access code or a booking confirmation. That is personal data, and under GDPR it has to be collected for a specific purpose, with consent that is freely given, specific, informed and unambiguous, meaning silence or a pre-ticked box does not count, and a festival goer has to be able to withdraw it as easily as they gave it ([GDPR's own consent requirements ↗](https://gdpr.eu/gdpr-consent-requirements/?ref=resources.getvolt.dk) spell this out). Ask directly whether the vendor uses festival goer contact details for anything beyond delivering the service booked, whether that data is shared with sponsors, and how long it is retained after the event ends. A vendor who cannot answer quickly has not thought about it.

## 5\. What are the cancellation and exclusivity terms, and what happens if either side pulls out?

A vendor contract needs the same scrutiny as an artist contract, and for the same reason: the cost of getting it wrong only shows up when something goes wrong. Look for a defined service level with named consequences for a shortfall, an indemnification clause that holds the festival harmless for the vendor's own actions or product failures, and clear terms for what each side keeps or forfeits if the event or the vendor's participation is cancelled (festival contract-clause guidance frames these as the [standard protections worth writing in, not assuming ↗](https://www.ticketfairy.com/blog/the-fine-print-that-saves-festivals-overlooked-contract-clauses-you-need-in-2026?ref=resources.getvolt.dk)). If charging is exclusive to one vendor on your site, confirm that exclusivity is mutual: you are not free to bring in a second provider mid-event if the first one underperforms, so the contract needs to make underperformance actually enforceable.

## 6\. Can you show real references, not just brochure specs?

Spec sheets describe hardware. References describe what happens when that hardware meets 40,000 people and a rainstorm. Vendor evaluation practice for any recurring supplier relationship comes down to the same test: reputation and market presence are a starting point, but the evidence that actually matters is verified, current, and comes from existing clients rather than the vendor's own materials ([standard vendor assessment guidance ↗](https://www.smartsheet.com/content/vendor-assessment-evaluation?ref=resources.getvolt.dk) makes this point directly). Ask for two or three festivals of a comparable size the vendor has actually run charging at this season, and go talk to them.

## 7\. How does the equipment actually get powered, and what can you honestly claim about it?

"Green charging" and "sustainable power" show up in a lot of vendor pitches without much behind them. A charging fleet plugs into whatever power the site supplies, generator or grid, so a vendor claiming their hardware is inherently renewable-powered is describing your site's electricity, not their product. It's a fair and specific question to ask directly: what tariff or generator setup does their equipment actually draw from at your event, and can they back up any sustainability claim with something more than the word itself. We've written the same honesty standard into our own [guide to the YOUROPE European Green Festival Roadmap](https://resources.getvolt.dk/articles/european-green-festival-roadmap-2030-an-organisers-guide/) for organisers weighing this against a wider sustainability plan.

## 8\. Can capacity flex if attendance shifts, and how fast?

Festival attendance rarely lands exactly on the forecast, and a charging setup sized for the wrong number either leaves festival goers queuing or leaves a vendor's hardware sitting idle. Ask how the vendor scales a deployment up or down between confirming numbers and event day, and whether that flexibility costs extra or is priced in. The same sizing logic that applies to storage applies here: our own [rules of thumb for sizing Event Lockers to a festival's footfall](https://resources.getvolt.dk/articles/how-many-event-lockers-does-your-festival-need/) are a useful worked example of the kind of answer a charging vendor should be able to give about their own hardware.

## The 8 questions at a glance

| Ask this                                     | A strong answer sounds like                             | A red flag sounds like                             |
| -------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------- |
| What's included in the price?                | A full cost stack in writing, extras itemised up front  | A single headline number, extras "to be confirmed" |
| Who's on-site, and how fast do they respond? | A named staff-to-unit ratio and shift pattern           | "Fully monitored" with no response-time commitment |
| What insurance do you carry?                 | A policy naming the festival as additional insured      | Hesitation, or "we've never needed it"             |
| What happens to festival goer data?          | A clear purpose, retention window and opt-out           | "We handle that", no specifics offered             |
| What are the cancellation terms?             | Named consequences for both sides in the contract       | A verbal assurance instead of contract language    |
| Can you show real references?                | Two or three comparable festivals, contactable directly | Only logos, no names offered                       |
| How is the equipment actually powered?       | A direct answer about your site's own power source      | An unqualified "green" or "sustainable" claim      |
| Can capacity flex if numbers change?         | A defined scaling process and its cost                  | "We'll figure it out on the day"                   |

None of these questions are unusual to ask. A charging provider who has run events before will have answers ready, in writing, without needing to check with someone else first. That itself is a useful signal: the hesitation is often the most honest answer in the room.

Volt runs both the staffed **Volt Charging Service** and **Volt Self-Service Charging** at more than 120 festivals and events, and we're used to organisers asking exactly these questions before signing. Our own [charging service page](https://resources.getvolt.dk/services/charging/) lays out what we run; if you're evaluating charging for your own event, get in touch via [Contact Volt](https://resources.getvolt.dk/contact/) or at [hello@getvolt.dk](mailto:hello@getvolt.dk) and ask us the same eight.

## Frequently asked questions

Should we get quotes from more than one charging provider? 

Yes. Comparing at least two full cost stacks, not just headline prices, is the fastest way to see what one vendor bundles into their fee that another treats as an extra.

Is a revenue share or a flat fee better for a festival's charging setup? 

Neither is automatically better. A revenue share shifts risk onto the vendor when footfall is uncertain, but a flat fee is easier to budget against. Ask any vendor proposing a revenue share to run the actual numbers against your expected attendance before comparing it to a flat quote.

What's a reasonable amount of notice for a charging provider to cancel? 

Contract guidance for festival vendor agreements treats a defined cancellation window with named consequences, not a verbal understanding, as the standard to hold vendors to, the same way artist contracts define what happens on either side's cancellation.

Do we need to see a charging provider's insurance certificate before signing? 

Yes. Asking to be named as additional insured on a vendor's general liability policy, and seeing the certificate before the event rather than after something goes wrong, is standard practice for any on-site vendor, not an unusual request.

Does self-service charging need less staffing than a staffed swap model? 

Generally yes, since festival goers take and return chargers themselves rather than queuing at a booth, but less staffing is not no staffing: someone still needs to be reachable for a jammed unit or a support issue, so ask the same response-time question either way.