The Glastonbury festival is one of the UK’s biggest cultural events. This year some 210,000 people attended the event from June 26th to 30th, which was headlined by Dua Lipa, Coldplay and SZA. And although the main Pyramid stage is where the headline acts perform, the event is huge, with festival-goers entertained by acts and performers across more than 100 stages.

An event of this scale requires a lot of equipment to run smoothly – including wireless microphones, in-ear monitors, wireless cameras and other devices, which all use radio spectrum to function. Some acts require more wireless gear than others – for example, Coldplay this year used 140 frequencies for a range of equipment including 42 in-ear monitors.

And, as in previous years, media regulator Ofcom was on site to ensure things went smoothly on this front.

In a news release, Ofcom explained its role at the festival, noting: “This wireless equipment has to be licensed and managed carefully to make sure none of it causes interference – either with other performance kit or with communications equipment being used at and around the festival. To do this, each piece of equipment must use its own frequency on the radio spectrum. Our licensing and programme-making and special events (PMSE) teams work hard before and during the event, issuing licences for frequencies used by the equipment and being available at the venue to help identify and address any issues.”

This year Ofcom licensed more than 2,000 individual frequencies. On top of that, this year saw the first use of a newly-authorised spectrum band.