Sports, Media, and Entertainment

An elevated vision for live entertainment

Nestled in the heart of Napa, BottleRock Napa Valley is an annual celebration that brings together world-class musicians, culinary icons, and global brands for an unmatched lifestyle event. Over three days, more than 120,000 fans converge to experience performances from more than 75 artists across seven stages, while sampling the renowned region's best food and wine, all in an atmosphere meticulously designed for comfort, connection, and discovery.

For its organizers, Latitude 38 Entertainment, BottleRock's mission is clear: continually exceed expectations and deliver a premium experience where every fan, chef, artist, vendor, and brand can shine. In today's digital era, this goes beyond staging a show. Modern festivalgoers expect to instantly share their own high-definition moments from the event, access festival apps, and effortlessly enjoy secure connectivity throughout the grounds.

At BottleRock Napa Valley, expectations for unforgettable, premium experiences magnify these network demands. Even with a consistent array of global megastars headlining the festival each year, one could argue that more than any one artist, it's the BottleRock experience that brings out attendees. The festival's VIP and higher-level Skydeck and Platinum tickets typically sell out before the lineup has even been announced.

"Our fans love music, but they also love celebrating the magic of Napa Valley," says Justin Dragoo, Chief Operating Officer/Partner at Latitude 38 Entertainment. "This is a lifestyle event they look forward to all year. The bar is high, and they may have just attended The Masters, Formula One, or Wimbledon. Our customers expect the best of Napa Valley all in one spot—and also expect the best event production in the world."

For an audience familiar with the priceless allure of Michelin-star restaurant experiences, there is an anticipation of tremendous value at every tier. Live Nation curates a mix of global brands and local winery sponsors, who in turn create tasting rooms and lavish lounges that make even general admission guests feel like they're getting VIP treatment one wouldn't find at any other festival.

All of these stakeholders depend on real-time data and digital services, and at the core of this challenge is connectivity.

Building the digital backbone

To turn vision into reality, BottleRock Napa Valley partnered with Cisco and Clair Global. With just a week to build the infrastructure, the team deployed a technology suite purpose-built for resilience, performance, and innovation. At the heart of the festival's digital infrastructure are Cisco Wireless access points—including stadium-grade and Wi-Fi 7 models. This builds upon prior success that had commenced in 2021, when BottleRock had tapped Cisco to help it become the first Live Nation event to deploy a free, festival-wide Wi-Fi 6 network for attendees and vendors.

Along with Catalyst 9300 Series Switches, these devices are all meticulously planned and deployed to deliver high-bandwidth, low-latency connectivity in every corner of the venue. "The primary technology that Cisco delivers at BottleRock is on the network side, so we deliver fan-facing Wi-Fi for the entire property," says Matt Swartz, Distinguished Engineer at Cisco.

This approach ensures that every attendee from the front row to the culinary stages can stream, upload, and interact online without delay. Cisco Spaces OpenRoaming provides automatic, password-free Wi-Fi access for more than 75% of compatible devices, making it effortless for fans to get connected the moment they arrive.

Operational efficiency is further enhanced by the integration of Cisco Meraki cameras with AI analytics, providing real-time telemetry on crowd movement, security, and hotspot detection. These insights, visualized in customizable Splunk dashboards, empower festival organizers to make data-driven decisions on the fly—managing crowd flow, optimizing vendor support, and ensuring rapid response to any network incident. "It gives you a real-time overview of everything happening in a very complex environment," says Matt Clair, EVP of Business Operations at Clair Global.

As the cameras and dashboards collect and manage data to simplify operations, it's the system's performance that holds the spotlight during critical moments of peak demand, such as when a headline act takes the stage and data usage surges across the event's grounds. "One of the great things about Cisco is the reliability," says Clair. "You know, we don't have to think about the equipment when we're deploying such a large festival such as BottleRock."

Digital resilience redefines festival success

Over the course of the 2025 event, more than 55,000 unique users connected to the festival Wi-Fi, with a peak of 20,755 concurrent connections. A staggering 44 terabytes (TB) of data flowed seamlessly—powering live streams, social sharing, real-time vendor transactions, and operational communications without a single moment of downtime. To put this number in perspective, at BottleRock Napa Valley 2024 the total data transfer was nearly 30.94 TB, with approximately the same number of unique users. That's a 40% increase in usage per person—handled flawlessly.

Meraki smart cameras, deployed more extensively than at any other U.S. festival, provided unmatched security coverage and enabled real-time monitoring of crowd flow and activity hotspots. The integration of sensor and camera data with network analytics allowed festival teams to maintain situational awareness, adapt to changing conditions, and keep both guests and staff safe.

Behind the scenes, operational teams monitor crowd density and traffic flow to optimize the ticketholder journey and respond to any incident.

"This technology allows us to provide a better experience for fans, not just this year, but next year and the year after that," says Swartz. Continuous improvement is more than a goal—it is a necessity in an industry where the bar for seamless, digital-first experiences is always rising.

Live Nation's digital backbone empowers BottleRock to deliver on its promise. During headline performances, fans flood the network, streaming in real time and sharing their experiences with friends and followers worldwide. Vendor operations, from point-of-sale transactions to inventory management—can be frictionless and strategic. Artists and brands can broadcast high-quality video content, and every producer and consumer of the BottleRock experience can participate in a connected, secure environment that feels both exclusive and effortless.

BottleRock's leadership team discusses how digital resilience underpins the event's world-class festival experience.

Continuously innovating the live experience

"Without Cisco technology, this festival would not be possible," says Scott Appleton, General Manager at Clair Global. The festival's entire ecosystem—from food and beverage sales to navigation apps and instant content sharing—relies on an infrastructure that simply works, no matter how high the demand.

As BottleRock looks to the future, its partnership with Cisco continues to evolve. The adoption of Wi-Fi 7 technology and AI-driven network tuning through Cisco Catalyst Center ensures that the festival's digital infrastructure will scale with rising expectations and new forms of engagement year after year.

"As the promoter, taking friction out of the fan experience is everything," says Jason Scoggins, Chief Revenue Officer/Partner at Latitude 38 Entertainment. "To know you can count on the numbers (the data) allows us to not only make changes for next year but just as importantly, throughout the actual festival weekend for the optimal fan experience."

For BottleRock Napa Valley, the investment in resilient, intelligent connectivity is about more than operational excellence. It's about enabling every chef, artist, brand, and attendee to create, share, and savor the moments that make the festival unforgettable. With Cisco as a partner, BottleRock's unique mission—to blend the best of entertainment, cuisine, and technology—comes to life, setting a new standard for what a music festival can be in the digital age.