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# Event Phone Charging Stations: The Organiser's Guide
- URL: https://resources.getvolt.dk/guides/event-phone-charging-stations-guide/
- Published: 2026-09-23T12:09:11.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-25T12:13:48.000Z
- Description: An event phone charging station lends a charged powerbank or charges a phone on site. The four models, what each needs from your site, and how to size it.
- Author: The Volt Team
- Tags: guide, Charging, For Organisers

An event phone charging station is a unit that keeps festival goers' phones alive without sending them to look for a wall socket. Some lend out a charged powerbank they take with them. Some take the phone in and hand it back charged. The hardware looks similar from the outside, but there are four different service models behind it, and they ask for different things from your site, your power plan and your staffing.

This guide covers what each model is, what it needs on the ground, where to put it and how to decide between running it yourself and bringing in an operator. It is written for organisers. If you are going to a festival and want to know how to keep your phone alive, start with [why phone charging is needed at festivals](https://resources.getvolt.dk/articles/why-is-phone-charging-needed-at-festivals/) instead.

## The four event charging models, side by side

Every charging setup at an event is one of these four, or a mix of them. The difference that matters is whether the festival goer walks away with power in their pocket or has to come back for their phone.

| Model                          | Staffed | What the festival goer gets                           | They come back?     |
| ------------------------------ | ------- | ----------------------------------------------------- | ------------------- |
| **Volt Self-Service Charging** | No      | A charger with three cables built in, taken with them | Only to return it   |
| **Volt Charging Service**      | Yes     | A Volt-Charger, swapped for a full one once a day     | Once a day, to swap |
| **Over-the-counter charging**  | Yes     | A powerbank, or just the right cable                  | To return it        |
| **Hand-in charging**           | Yes     | Nothing. Their own device is charged for them         | Yes, to collect     |

Two of these are genuinely different products rather than two sizes of the same one. [Volt Self-Service Charging](https://resources.getvolt.dk/articles/how-volt-self-service-charging-works/) runs with no staff on the station itself, which is what makes it work in camping areas spread across a site. [Hand-in charging](https://resources.getvolt.dk/articles/what-is-hand-in-charging/) is the opposite: it needs a counter, a person and a system for handing the right phone back to the right person, and the festival goer is without their phone while it charges.

The fifth option, a tent full of extension leads, has quietly disappeared from most events. [That happened for a reason](https://resources.getvolt.dk/articles/why-is-there-no-charging-tent-at-festivals/), and it is mostly about what a fixed charging point does to the people standing at it.

## Why the venue's own sockets are not the answer

Most event sites have some power the public can reach. Almost none of it is meant for phones.

Copenhell publishes this plainly in [its own practical information](https://www.copenhell.dk/en/practical-info?ref=resources.getvolt.dk): "In the Info Booth at the festival entrance, there is limited capacity for charging electric aids (e.g., wheelchairs or scooters) and cold storage of medication or similar items (at your own risk)." That is an accessibility provision, correctly ring-fenced. It is not a charging service, and a festival goer who treats it as one is taking capacity from someone who needs a wheelchair to work.

The wider point is a safety one. The UK's Health and Safety Executive tells organisers to [locate electrical equipment out of public reach](https://www.hse.gov.uk/event-safety/electrical-safety.htm?ref=resources.getvolt.dk): "As far as practicable, locate all electrical equipment so that members of the public or unauthorised workers cannot touch it." Public sockets are the exact opposite of that. A charging station is a way of giving people power without giving them access to your electrical system.

## What a charging station needs from your site

### Power

Less than people expect. A charging station is not a high-draw load, because it is charging small cells slowly and continuously rather than running a stage. The Volt Locker Container, which carries 296 lockers, runs on a single 230V outlet. The Cubic Locker unit, which includes four integrated powerbank dispenser bays alongside its 74 lockers, is specified at 240V/10A CEE.

The number that actually drives your plan is turnaround. A Volt charging station brings a returned powerbank back to full in about 120 minutes. That is the figure that tells you whether your fleet recycles fast enough for a three-day event, not the amperage.

### Connectivity

Stations need to be online to take payment and to report what is happening. Volt stations carry a built-in 4G SIM, so a unit works on a greenfield site with no venue network of its own. Volt also runs Starlink on site and can provide it, which covers the sites where 4G is the thing that falls over once 40,000 people arrive.

Ask any supplier what happens when connectivity drops mid-event. It is a fair question and the answer tells you a lot.

### Weather

Anything outdoors has to survive rain that arrives sideways. HSE's guidance is direct: "construct or protect electrical equipment that could be exposed to rain or other adverse conditions with suitable and sufficient covers, enclosures or shelters." The standard that puts a number on it is [IEC 60529](https://webstore.iec.ch/publication/2452?ref=resources.getvolt.dk), "Degrees of protection provided by enclosures (IP Code)", which classifies protection for electrical equipment "with a rated voltage not exceeding 72,5 kV".

Ask for the rating rather than the adjective. "Weatherproof" is a word. An IP figure is a claim someone had to test. There is more on this in the guide to [what an outdoor unit actually has to survive](https://resources.getvolt.dk/articles/outdoor-event-lockers-weather-power-connectivity/).

### Space and placement

The physical footprint is small. The three station sizes in the Volt offering are a stackable tabletop unit holding eight powerbanks, a 170 cm tower holding 24, and a 200 cm unit holding 48\. None of them needs more floor than a bar fridge. What they need is the space around them.

## Where to put them

A charging station is a thing people stop at, which makes it a crowd feature whether you planned it as one or not. HSE's [crowd controls guidance](https://www.hse.gov.uk/event-safety/crowd-management-controls.htm?ref=resources.getvolt.dk) asks organisers to make sure people can leave a queue "without having to move against those queuing behind them or into the path of moving vehicles", and states plainly that "Queuing should not block emergency access routes."

Three practical consequences:

- **Self-service stations scatter, staffed points concentrate.** If you only run staffed charging, you have created one or two magnets. Self-service units let you cover camps that a staffed booth could never justify.
- **Do not put a station in the gate queue.** People arriving are already in a line. Adding a reason to stop inside it is how a pinch point forms.
- **Return traffic peaks at the end.** Anything that has to be handed back concentrates on the last day, in the same hours as everyone leaving.

The same reasoning applies to storage, and it is worked through in detail in the guide to [Event Locker placement, ingress and egress](https://resources.getvolt.dk/articles/event-locker-placement-ingress-egress-bottlenecks/).

## How to size it

There is no honest universal ratio of chargers to festival goers, and anyone who quotes you one without asking about your event is guessing. What actually moves the number:

- **Length.** A one-day event is a single charge problem. A week of camping is a daily one, and daily means swaps, not rentals.
- **Camping or not.** Camping festival goers have nowhere to charge at night. Day-event goers go home to a socket.
- **What the phone is doing.** If the phone is the ticket, the map and the payment method, a flat battery stops someone spending money. Events that have moved [cashless](https://resources.getvolt.dk/articles/cashless-festivals-charging-payment-system/) have a harder floor under this than events that still take cards.
- **Site spread.** A compact arena can run two points. A camping site with seven camp areas cannot.

Volt runs charging at over 120 festivals and events in 2026 across six countries, and the sizing comes out different at nearly all of them. That is the honest answer: it is fitted per event, not read off a chart.

## Rent the service, or buy the hardware

Both are real options. Lockers and charging are available as a rental for a single event and as a purchase for a permanent install, so the question is not what is possible but what you want to own.

Buying makes sense where the demand is year-round and the site is fixed: an arena, a station, a venue that runs 200 nights. For an event that happens once a year, you would be buying hardware that sits in storage for 51 weeks, plus the operations to run it: logistics, maintenance, staffing, fleet management and the payment system behind it.

The full version of this argument, including what an operator actually absorbs, is in [build it yourself or bring in an operator](https://resources.getvolt.dk/articles/event-charging-build-it-yourself-or-bring-in-an-operator/). If you are already at the supplier-comparison stage, the [eight questions to ask before signing](https://resources.getvolt.dk/articles/8-questions-to-ask-before-signing-a-festival-charging-provider/) is the shorter, more useful read.

## Charging and storage usually arrive together

Festival goers who want somewhere to put a bag generally also want a phone that still works, which is why charging and storage are often bought as one line. Some events sell them bundled. The companion piece to this one is the [complete guide to festival lockers](https://resources.getvolt.dk/guides/festival-lockers-guide/), which covers the storage half the same way.

Before you scope any of this against your site, settle where your supply point sits and who owns the installation on each side of it. Our guide to [temporary power at Nordic events](https://resources.getvolt.dk/guides/temporary-power-nordic-events-responsibility/) covers what Denmark, Norway and Sweden each require, and what their inspectors keep finding.

## FAQ

### What is an event phone charging station?

A unit at an event that either lends a festival goer a charged powerbank to take with them, or charges their own device while they wait or come back for it. It exists so people get power without needing a wall socket or access to the site's electrical system.

### How much power does an event charging station need?

Much less than most organisers assume. A Volt Locker Container with 296 lockers runs on one 230V outlet, and the Cubic Locker unit with integrated powerbank bays is specified at 240V/10A CEE. The constraint is turnaround time, roughly 120 minutes to bring a returned powerbank back to full, not peak draw.

### Do charging stations need internet on site?

They need connectivity for payment and reporting, but not necessarily yours. Volt stations carry a built-in 4G SIM so they work without a venue network, and Volt runs Starlink on site as the site-wide fallback.

### Can festival goers just use our power sockets instead?

It is not a service and it is a safety problem. HSE guidance asks organisers to locate electrical equipment so the public cannot touch it. Where events do publish a public charging point, it is usually ring-fenced for assistive equipment, as Copenhell's is for wheelchairs and scooters.

### Staffed or self-service charging: which is better?

Neither, they solve different problems. Self-service stations cover ground with no staff on them, which suits camping areas and spread-out sites. Staffed points handle swaps, cable rental and hand-in charging, and they give festival goers someone to ask. Most larger events run both.

### How many charging stations does an event need?

It depends on event length, whether people are camping, how spread out the site is, and whether the phone is also the ticket and the payment method. There is no reliable per-head ratio, and a supplier quoting one without asking those questions is guessing.

## Talk to us

Volt runs charging and storage at over 120 festivals and events across Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, the Netherlands and Belgium. If you want it sized to your event rather than to a chart, see [what we run for organisers](https://resources.getvolt.dk/for-organisers/) or read the [charging service in detail](https://resources.getvolt.dk/services/charging/). Questions go to [hello@getvolt.dk](mailto:hello@getvolt.dk).