How many Event Lockers does your festival need? A practical guide for organisers

Locker demand at most camping festivals runs at roughly 10 to 20 percent of daily attendance, though it varies by event type, how well Event Lockers are promoted and whether advance booking is available. This guide walks through how to size your locker offering before you talk to a supplier, and what tends to catch organisers out.

The 10 to 20 percent baseline

Across camping festivals, locker demand typically sits between 10 and 20 percent of daily attendance. That is the working range Volt sees across over 120 festivals and events each season. In practical terms: a camping festival expecting 5,000 festival goers per day should plan for somewhere between 500 and 1,000 locker bookings. A 20,000-person event should plan for 2,000 to 4,000.

The range is wide because context matters. Before you commit to a unit count, you need to know which end of that range your event sits closer to, and why.

What shifts demand above or below the baseline

Event type and duration

Camping festivals almost always land at the higher end. Festival goers staying on site for three or four nights carry more with them than a day-tripper, and they often want secure storage for valuables they would not leave in a tent overnight. Day-ticket city events and afternoon concerts tend to sit at the lower end, sometimes below 10 percent, because most people arrive from home with only what fits in a pocket or a small bag.

Bag policy

This is one of the biggest variables. Festivals operating a strict no-large-bag entry rule see locker demand spike sharply on arrival, as festival goers who did not plan ahead look for somewhere to put their backpack. Rolling Loud, for example, prohibits backpacks and most bags at all its US events. When that kind of restriction is in force, demand can push well above 20 percent of attendance and concentrate in a very narrow arrival window.

If you are still finalising your bag policy, the decision has a direct impact on the locker count you will need. Our guide to bag rules at major Nordic festivals shows how different events handle this.

Promotion and advance booking

Under-promotion is the most common reason locker uptake falls short of projections, not a lack of interest from festival goers. When lockers are buried in a festival app rather than featured in the ticket confirmation email and on the main booking page, demand is suppressed. Prominent placement in the purchase flow, with a clear explanation of dimensions and pricing, consistently drives uptake toward the upper end of the range.

Day lockers versus festival-week lockers: how turnover changes the maths

Whether your festival goers book by the day or for the full festival run affects the absolute number of locker units you need.

A day locker turns over once every 24 hours. If there is a morning access window and an evening return, some operators build in a second daily cycle, which increases effective capacity without adding hardware. A festival-week booking, by contrast, means one festival goer occupies that locker for five or six days. That unit is unavailable to anyone else for the entire run.

The practical consequence: a camping festival with a high share of multi-day bookings needs a larger absolute locker count than the percentage baseline alone suggests, because turnover is lower. A single-day event can often manage with fewer units because each locker clears by the end of the day. Our guide on choosing between a day locker and a full-festival locker explains how festival goers think about this decision, which affects how your demand splits across booking types.

The unit maths

Once you have an estimated locker demand, you can work backwards to a rough unit count.

Volt's standard locker container holds 296 lockers, each 30 x 30 x 50 cm, running off a single 230V outlet. Flightcase modules hold approximately 40 lockers each and can be distributed across a large site wherever a full container is not practical.

At scale, Paaspop Festival in the Netherlands operated over 12,000 connected lockers across a single edition, with some events generating over 100,000 euros from locker services alone. That is an unusually large deployment, but it illustrates how much capacity a well-promoted locker operation can absorb at a major festival.

For a more typical Nordic camping festival expecting 1,000 to 1,500 locker bookings, three to five containers is a reasonable starting point. A Volt proposal will refine this based on your site layout, expected attendance and booking mix.

What tends to catch organisers out

Planning against daily capacity rather than peak arrival

Locker demand does not arrive evenly across the day. It concentrates in the first two or three hours after gates open, as festival goers settle in and realise they want somewhere to put their bag. An organiser who sizes lockers correctly against total daily demand but positions them only at one site entrance will still face a bottleneck. Placement matters as much as count. Distributing units across two or three entrances, or placing a satellite module cluster near the main camping zone, levels out the arrival spike.

Overlooking Cool Lockers

Cool Lockers, Volt's refrigerated Event Lockers for food, drinks and temperature-sensitive medication, have lower overall demand than standard lockers but generate a distinct need that a standard locker cannot meet. Festival goers managing insulin or other medication that must stay cool, parents of young children and long-stay campers are the most frequent users. Adding a small number of Cool Locker units alongside standard Event Lockers avoids an uncomfortable gap in your offering and covers a category of festival goer who has no acceptable alternative.

Contacting the supplier too late

Hardware takes time to configure, test and dispatch. At busy points in the festival season, the most popular unit types book up well in advance. An organiser who contacts Volt eight weeks before the event will get a properly tailored proposal. An organiser who calls two weeks out may find the ideal configuration is no longer available. The earlier you engage, the more control you have over sizing, placement and pricing.

A simple planning framework

Before you call a supplier, run through these steps.

1. Set your low and high scenarios. Take your expected daily attendance. Multiply by 0.10 for the low case and by 0.20 for the high case.
2. Adjust for your context. Move towards the upper end if you have a strict bag policy, a multi-day camping format, or lockers featured prominently in the booking flow. Move towards the lower end if the event is a single afternoon, most visitors arrive by car, or there are no bag restrictions.
3. Account for turnover. If most demand is for multi-day bookings, add 15 to 20 percent to your locker count estimate to compensate for the lower unit turnover rate.
4. Convert to unit count. Divide your target locker number by 296 for full containers or by 40 for flightcase modules. A mix of both is typical on larger sites.
5. Add Cool Lockers. A reasonable starting point is one Cool Locker unit for every 10 to 15 standard units, scaled by event duration.
6. Brief your supplier early. Share attendance figures, event duration, site layout and your bag policy at the first conversation. See how the revenue-share model works before that meeting so you understand what you are agreeing to.

Frequently asked questions

What percentage of festival goers typically book a locker?

Demand at most camping festivals falls between 10 and 20 percent of daily attendance. Single-day events tend to see lower uptake, sometimes closer to 8 to 12 percent. A strict bag policy and strong advance promotion both push the number towards the top of the range or beyond it.

Can Event Lockers sell out at a festival?

Yes. At popular multi-day camping festivals the full locker allocation can book out before gates open, particularly if the event operates a strict bag policy or has limited on-site storage alternatives. Planning from a conservative scenario and agreeing an overflow procedure with your supplier in advance reduces the risk.

How many lockers does a single Volt container hold?

Volt's standard locker container holds 296 lockers, each 30 x 30 x 50 cm, running off a single 230V outlet. Flightcase modules hold approximately 40 lockers each and are useful for distributing capacity across a large or irregularly shaped site.

Does Volt work on a revenue-share basis?

Yes. Organisers typically keep a share of locker booking income without any upfront hardware or staffing cost. The arrangement scales with event size. See the full revenue-share breakdown for event lockers.

When should I contact Volt about Event Lockers for my festival?

As early as possible, and at least 8 to 12 weeks before your event. The earlier you brief Volt with your attendance figures, site layout and bag-policy plans, the better the sizing and placement can match your specific site.

Talk to Volt about your event

Volt has delivered Event Lockers across more than 120 festivals and events in 14 years, serving over 1M customers. Send your attendance figures, event duration and site details to hello@getvolt.dk to get a tailored proposal.