Hearing damage is the one harm at a festival that nobody tests for, nobody treats on the night, and nobody gets back. Filtered earplugs lower the volume fairly evenly instead of muffling everything, so the music still sounds like music.
What the evidence says
A randomised trial at an Amsterdam festival measured 100 dBA across the event and followed 51 adults. Temporary hearing loss appeared in 8% of ears with earplugs and 42% without, and new tinnitus in 12% versus 40%. Roughly three people need to wear them for one to be spared a measurable shift that night (Ramakers et al., JAMA Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg, 2016).
The number on the box is not the number in your ear
Loop publishes two figures for the same plug, because Europe and the US measure differently: the Experience is rated SNR up to 18 dB under EN 352-2 and NRR 7 dB under ANSI S3.19-1973. Both are laboratory numbers with a perfect fit, and a real ear in a dark tent gets less. It still matters enormously, because noise dose halves with every 3 dB you take off.
Which one
Experience for music, the flattest filter of the range. Quiet (SNR up to 26.2 dB) for sleeping afterwards, which is the use people underrate. Switch if one pair has to do everything, with three modes from 17 to 25 dB. Engage (16 dB) is built for conversation rather than a soundsystem. All of them are EN 352-2 certified, which plenty of fashion earplugs are not.
What it will not do
Nothing for the substance side of the night, and nothing at all from your pocket, which is where most pairs end up by midnight. They do not make a 110 dB room safe indefinitely either: they buy you hours, not immunity. If you take them out for the headline set, that set is the one that does the damage.
How we rate this
This verdict is based on the published specifications and the trial evidence cited above, not on a long-term test by us. Where we have used something ourselves, we say so.