How loud is a festival? How to protect your hearing on a festival day

A festival day easily lasts eight to twelve hours. Your ears are switched on all that time, at the bar and between the stages too. Below you can read how loud a festival really is, which sound limits apply, what free earplugs do and don’t do, and which earplugs you can keep in all day.

How loud is a festival really?

Whether sound causes damage depends on how loud it is and how long you’re exposed to it. A common rule of thumb takes 80 dB(A) for 8 hours as the safe daily dose. Every 3 dB more means twice as much sound energy, so it halves the time you can safely spend in that sound.

In a festival tent and in front of the main stages the sound is often around 100 dB. Festivals that work with a limit, such as the 100 dB averaged over 15 minutes that the WHO recommends, stay below it on average, but right next to the speakers it can be louder at times. This is what that means in time:

Based on the rule of thumb of 80 dB(A) for 8 hours, halving per 3 dB. These are guide values: the real level differs from place to place on the site. You’ll find more examples in how many decibels is harmful.

A common idea is that it’s not so bad outdoors, because the sound can spread in all directions. That’s only partly true. In the open air the exposure is lower on average than in a hall, but stand close to the speakers for an hour and the difference with a concert hall is small. And a festival doesn’t last an hour, it lasts a whole day.

Is there a sound limit for festivals?

There is no EU-wide sound limit for festivals, concerts or clubs. Unlike noise at work, which is covered by an EU directive, this is left to each country, and sometimes to each region or city. Many countries have no legal limit at all.

What does exist are recommendations and national examples:

• The WHO published the Global Standard for Safe Listening Venues and Events in 2022. It recommends a maximum of 100 dB LAeq averaged over 15 minutes, live monitoring of the sound level, hearing protection available for visitors, quiet zones and training for staff.
• The Netherlands, for example: there is no legal limit, but venues, festivals and hospitality businesses that have signed the industry covenant keep to a maximum of 103 dB(A), averaged over 15 minutes.
• Flanders (Belgium): environmental rules (VLAREM II) allow up to 100 dB(A) averaged over 15 minutes.
• Germany: the DIN 15905-5 standard uses 99 dB(A) averaged over 30 minutes.

Even within those limits it is loud enough for hearing damage: at 103 dB you reach your daily dose in about 2.5 minutes, and at 100 dB in about 5. A limit protects you against peaks, not against a long day. Hearing protection remains necessary, whatever the rules where you are.

Why hearing damage creeps up on you

Hearing damage doesn’t hurt and doesn’t happen with a bang. Loud sounds damage the hair cells in your inner ear, and they don’t grow back. It starts gradually: you understand people in a busy café slightly less well, or certain high tones no longer come through. Because it’s only a little per festival, you only notice once something is already gone. Hearing aids can amplify, but they can’t repair.

Almost everyone knows the ringing or hissing when you get home and it’s quiet. That’s a sign your ears are overloaded. Usually it fades within a day. If the sound stays, it’s called tinnitus. How long that ringing normally lasts and when to see your GP, you can read in ringing in your ears after a night out.

Free earplugs at festivals: are they any good?

At many festivals you can get free earplugs, for example at the entrance, the info stand, the first-aid post or the bar. They are usually foam earplugs or simple universal earplugs. They’re much better than nothing, but they fall short on a few points:

• They are often not inserted properly. You have to roll a foam earplug up and let it expand deep in your ear canal. If it’s only halfway in, it barely attenuates and gives you a false sense of safety.
• The music sounds dull. Foam attenuates the high tones much more than the bass. As a result you can hardly understand your friends, and that is the main reason people take them out again after half an hour.
• You have to find them first. On a large site, that search is the moment many visitors decide they’ll do without.

So always bring something yourself, and see the free earplugs as a spare.

Filter earplugs or custom earplugs?

Filter earplugs work differently from foam. They contain an acoustic filter that lowers the volume across the whole range, so the music stays balanced. You hear it the way it was meant to sound, only quieter, and conversations stay clear. If you go to a festival once a year, a universal filter earplug from the chemist is a reasonable first step.

Go more often, or play yourself? Then custom festival earplugs are the better choice. They are made from an impression of your ears, so they really seal: with a universal earplug that doesn’t quite fit, sound leaks in around the edge and you don’t get the stated attenuation. And they stay in without pressing, even after ten hours.

At Audinc we make them in our own 3D lab in Eindhoven. Taking the impressions takes about five minutes; for the whole appointment we plan twenty minutes, so you can take your time looking at demos and choosing your colour. The production time is 15 working days, with a rush option if time is tight. You get at least 2 years’ warranty and a 6-month comfort guarantee, and with good care they last four to five years. You can read more about the different filters at music earplugs.

Practical tips for the festival day

• Put them in before you walk onto the site. Not only when it starts to feel too loud: by then you've already taken the first hit.
• Keep your distance from the speakers. A spot a little further back or to the side quickly makes several decibels of difference, and so many times more safe time.
• Take breaks. A quarter of an hour in a quiet spot gives your ears a rest. Plan them between the acts you didn't want to see anyway.
• Keep them in for your favourite act. That's exactly when the temptation to take them out is greatest. With a music filter you don't miss a thing.
• Sleeping at the campsite? Bring separate sleeping earplugs for that. They attenuate as much as possible and are made to lie on.

Going to carnival or other events that last several days too? The same rules apply; read our tips for earplugs at carnival.

Care and preventing loss

Keep your earplugs in the case that comes with them, on your keyring or in your bag, not loose in your trouser pocket: that’s where you lose them and they collect fluff. Clean them after a festival with a cleaning spray that doesn’t affect the material, and let them dry before you put them away, so the filter channel stays open.

Lost them anyway? If you took out our loss guarantee at the fitting (€13), you’re covered against loss for one year from the fitting date and you only pay the excess for a replacement set: €25 for a purchase price up to and including €128.95, €35 up to and including €159.95, and 30% of the purchase price above that. You report it via the loss guarantee form; the conditions are in our service policy. What you can do without the loss guarantee, you can read in lost earplugs.

Festival seasonCustom festival earplugsSee the filters and models, and plan your fitting at least four weeks before your first festival. See the options

Sources

• WHO: Global standard for safe listening venues and events (2022; maximum 100 dB LAeq averaged over 15 minutes, hearing protection for visitors)
• WHO: WHO hearing guidelines implemented at major arts festival
• Dutch House of Representatives (example for the Netherlands): Letter on preventing hearing damage, parliamentary paper 32 793 no. 697 (2023, in Dutch; covenant 103 dB(A) averaged over 15 minutes)