Cashless festivals are on the rise.

Summer is here, which can mean only one thing: it’s festival season!

Now picture this scenario with us for a moment. You’ve been in the sun all day (hopefully anyway!), so naturally you’re a bit parched. You decide to get a drink. Many others have the same idea and join a queue. But when you get to the front, you get told those two dreaded words “CASH ONLY”.

Thankfully this scenario is becoming a thing of the past. Festival organisers are wising up to customers’ spending patterns - they know people prefer to pay in other ways.

So, why exactly are cashless festivals on the rise?

Wearable technology.

As you may have guessed, a big factor for explaining the rise of cashless festivals is because of the technology that has been introduced. This is known as RFID, which stands for Radio Frequency Identification.

How does this work? Well, festival goers wear a wristband that has their payment information linked to the device. This means that they can make a payment with a small tap of the wrist band. A bit like you would with your contactless card.

These have become very popular at many festivals and according to a piece in Intellix:

“Has proven that vendors and organisers can gain an increase of 15-30% in on-site revenue from cashless systems compared to traditional forms of payment at an event”

So, by not offering this kind of tech, vendors could be missing out!

Speed up your service.

The technology is beneficial not just for the festival goers, but also for vendors like yourselves.

Think about it. Setting up at a festival, with thousands of people, means you should be very busy.

Not having to think about bringing along a till, or dealing with loose change is quite a time saver. Queues can flow much quicker and you can serve people much faster.

It’s more secure.

Another issue with taking cash on site is that it’s a prime spot for potential theft. Imagine a large festival that goes over a few days, where people stay and sleep on the site. Who knows what may or may not happen.

With this in mind, it’s easy to see why vendors are choosing to avoid this scenario entirely.

From a customer perspective, RFID technology means that no one has to worry about dropping their money and carrying cash with them whilst dancing along to their favourite band.

Digital reach.

This is less to do with small businesses and vendors, and more concerned with the event organisers and sponsors. But it does explain why this technology has wider benefits. Firstly, RFID wristbands can synch with individual social media accounts.

From a marketing perspective, this is incredibly useful in seeing how popular the event is and what people are doing. In turn, this gives brands and sponsors the chance to get real time data on the event.

Again, whilst this may not directly be to do with the customer or the vendor, it does show why event organisers are more than happy for their events to be cashless.

With takepayments events, we can be at your site, 24/7, making event payments easy.