Case Study: Zwarte Cross achieves reliable, high‑capacity festival Wi‑Fi and improved attendee mobile experience with Extreme Networks

Delivering a Unique Festival User Experience

Zwarte Cross, one of Europe’s largest outdoor music and sports festivals in the Netherlands (over 220,000 attendees in 2018), needed reliable, large‑scale connectivity across 160 hectares to support visitors, 32 caterers, 40,000 event jobs and mission‑critical back‑of‑house systems. To meet mobile expectations and offload congested cellular networks, Zwarte Cross partnered with Extreme Networks, deploying solutions including ExtremeWireless, ExtremeSwitching, ExtremeGuest and ExtremeAnalytics to deliver purpose‑built Wi‑Fi and network visibility for the event.

Extreme Networks and integration partner Indicium implemented a temporary fiber ring, microwave backup, a mesh of 280 access points and centralized management/analytics, plus an on‑site Wireless Helpdesk Booth. The deployment enabled over 10,000 unique users, peaked at more than 3,000 concurrent Wi‑Fi clients, moved nearly 6 TB of data from the main stage on Day 2, and supported ticketing, point‑of‑sale and internal communications—demonstrating measurable improvements in guest experience and operational reliability driven by Extreme Networks.

Zwarte Cross

Maurice Haafs

ICT Coordinator