Cash at music festivals could soon be a thing of the past.
Promoters Live Nation are planning to test a system at this summer’s Download metal extravaganza in the UK whereby tickets and pre-paid amounts of credit will be loaded onto a wristband-encased microchip.
This can then be used to buy food, drink and other merchandise from official onsite vendors.
Talking to Music Week magazine, Live Nation UK chief operating officer John Probyn says: “Similar systems already exist – my golf club and universities have it – but it hasn’t been used at a major outdoor festival, so we’ll hopefully give it a limited trial at Download.
“If their money runs out,” he continues, “they can top up online or even get mum to top up for them from home. That also allows parents to take a degree of control because they could programme the wristband so that only a certain amount of the cash could be used for drink, with another chunk earmarked for food.”
If the trial proves successful, 2010 could see the wristband system being employed at other festivals Live Nation have a stake in, which include Oxegen.