How to Keep Food, Drinks and Medication Cold at a Festival

Keeping beer cold at a festival is easy. Keeping insulin cold is a different problem entirely, and a much less forgiving one. Volt's Cool Lockers are refrigerated Event Lockers built to solve both: food, drinks, and temperature-sensitive medication, at the same fixed cold temperature for the whole event. Here is how they work, what a cooler can and cannot do on its own, and which festivals currently have them on site.

Why a hot tent fails food and medication differently

A closed tent in direct summer sun heats up fast, well past anything either food or medication can tolerate. But the two failure modes are not the same.

For food, the UK's official guidance is specific: your fridge, and by extension anything meant to store perishables safely, should be set between 0 and 5°C, according to the UK Food Standards Agency. Above that, bacteria that cause food poisoning multiply fast, and the risk compounds the longer perishables sit warm.

For insulin, the risk is not acute poisoning, it is potency. According to FDA guidance, unopened insulin should be kept refrigerated at roughly 36 to 46°F (2 to 8°C). In-use insulin can tolerate room temperature, up to about 59 to 86°F (15 to 30°C), for up to 28 days, but the longer it sits above that range, the more effectiveness it loses. A tent at midday can run well past 30°C, and unlike spoiled food, insulin that has quietly lost potency does not smell or look any different. You only find out it stopped working when your blood glucose does not respond the way it should.

Both problems have the same practical fix: get food, drinks, and medication off the "hope the tent stays cool" plan and onto something that actually holds a temperature.

What a cooler can do, and where it runs out

A well-packed hard cooler buys real time. A few things make the difference:

• Pre-chill it the night before. Pack ice or ice packs and leave the lid shut overnight so the cooler itself starts cold, not just its contents.
• Use block ice, not cubes. Block ice lasts longer in a quality hard cooler than bagged cubes, which tend to melt within a day or two in summer heat.
• Pack from the bottom up. Frozen items and anything that must stay coldest go at the base, with ice packed around them.
• Keep it in the shade. Direct sun on the lid pushes the interior temperature up fast, undoing hours of careful packing.
• Run a separate cooler for drinks. Every open-and-close for a round of drinks lets warm air in. Splitting food and drinks into two coolers protects the one that actually matters.

The limit is that a cooler is passive. It slows the rise, it cannot hold a fixed temperature once the ice is gone. On day three of a multi-day festival, or through a heatwave, that gap becomes the whole problem again, and for medication like insulin, "probably still fine" is not good enough.

Cool Lockers, explained

Cool Lockers are refrigerated Event Lockers, same footprint as a standard Event Locker (30 x 30 x 50 cm), same access system, but held at cold storage temperature for the full event rather than left at ambient. You book one in advance, get a personal access code by email and SMS, and open and re-lock it as often as you like during operating hours. No queue, no staff check-in required to get in and out.

They sit close to the campsite, not off at the far edge of the site, so getting to your own food or medication does not mean a long walk each time.

Which festivals have Cool Lockers

Volt runs services at over 120 festivals and events across Europe, and Cool Lockers are on the list at a number of them, though not every one. Roskilde Festival is a confirmed example: its full-suite Volt operation includes Cool Lockers alongside standard Event Lockers and charging. Availability varies by event and by year, so check your specific festival's own info page or Volt listing, or email hello@getvolt.dk with the festival name to confirm before you rely on it.

Food, drinks, or medication: what actually goes in

The everyday use is groceries and drinks: a weekend's worth of food for anyone cooking rather than buying every meal on-site, and beer or soft drinks that should be cold in the morning rather than whatever temperature the air has settled to overnight.

The less obvious use is medication. Festival goers carrying insulin or other cold-chain medication run into the same problem every time: a soft cooler pouch with gel packs works for a day, then warms up once the ice is spent. A Cool Locker removes that guesswork, the temperature is the same on day four as it was on day one. You do not need to declare a medical reason to book one, but if you are managing a condition that needs cold storage, it is the one option on-site that actually holds a fixed temperature rather than slowly losing the fight against the sun.

For the full medication-specific breakdown, including what to do if your insulin did get warm, see how do you keep insulin cold at a festival. For the wider camping checklist beyond cold storage, see 9 things every festival camp needs.

How to book a Cool Locker

Where a festival offers Cool Lockers, you book online through that event's Volt presale: pick your dates, pay online, and get your personal access code by email and SMS before the festival starts. It is the same flow as a standard Event Locker, just refrigerated.

Cool Lockers sell out ahead of the event at most festivals that carry them, so book as soon as your event's presale opens rather than waiting for arrival day. If you cannot see Cool Lockers listed for your festival yet, email hello@getvolt.dk with the event name to confirm whether they are part of the setup and when booking opens.

Frequently asked questions

How cold do Cool Lockers get?

Cool Lockers are refrigerated and held at cold storage temperature throughout the event, suitable for food, drinks, and temperature-sensitive medication. If you need a specific range confirmed, for example 2 to 8°C for insulin, email hello@getvolt.dk before booking.

What's the difference between a Cool Locker and a standard Event Locker?

Refrigeration, and nothing else. Access (a personal code by SMS), dimensions (30 x 30 x 50 cm), and the booking flow are identical to a standard Event Locker. A standard locker is neither heated nor cooled; a Cool Locker holds cold storage temperature the whole event.

Can I use a Cool Locker for insulin or other medication?

Yes. Festival goers use Cool Lockers for insulin and other medication that needs cold storage, such as certain biologics. See how do you keep insulin cold at a festival for the medication-specific detail.

Which festivals currently have Cool Lockers?

Availability varies by event. Roskilde Festival is a confirmed example. Check your specific festival's own info page, or email hello@getvolt.dk with the festival name to confirm before the event.

Do I need to book a Cool Locker in advance?

Yes, strongly recommended. Cool Lockers sell out ahead of the festival at most events that offer them, so book as soon as your event's presale opens.