13 Reasons to Use Cashless RFID Wristbands at Your Next Music Festival

You’ve got a big music festival coming up.

Naturally, you want it to be a massive success.

You want more revenue. You want to cut costs without hurting the experience. You want happy attendees who can’t wait to come back next year.

It’s a lot to juggle – and we’d be lying if we said there was a single solution to easily solve all these challenges.

But there is a single upgrade you can make that will transform your music festival for the better. And it more than pays for itself.

We’re talking about cashless RFID wristbands.

If you’re not already using them, it’s time to consider the upgrade.

And if you’re skeptical, stay tuned. Because we’ve got 13 powerful motivators that just might change your mind.

Let’s dig in.

What are Cashless Payments?

In general, when people talk about cashless payments, they’re talking about any form of payment without cash, which could mean credit cards, mobile wallets like Apple Pay and Google Pay, apps like Venmo or Paypal, or RFID wristbands.

While credit cards, mobile wallets and apps are great for certain scenarios, nothing matches the speed and convenience of RFID wristbands for the festival environment.

What Is a Cashless RFID Wristband?

In case you’re new to this technology and wondering people are referring to when they talk about an “RFID cashless payment system”, they’re typically referring to a system where attendees receive a wristband that allows them to “tap to pay” for things like food, beverages, and merchandise at your event without the hassle of having to constantly pull out their credit card or phone.

The technology that powers this is called Radio Frequency Identification (RFID). A RFID wristband has unique smart chip inside it that stores and transmits data without making direct physical contact. It’s securely tied to a guest’s credit/debit card and allows them to quickly and easily tap to pay with the flick of a wrist.

If you’re not ready to give up cash and card, you may want to consider a hybrid approach that allows you to accept RFID wristbands, credit/debit cards, mobile wallets and cash all at once.

But there are many scenarios where making the leap to RFID wristbands makes a ton of sense. Here’s 13 reasons why you should consider it for your next event.

Why You Should Use Cashless RFID Wristbands at Your Next Music Festival

Cashless RFID wristbands are a nifty technology.

But “nifty” upgrades don’t always make for good business decisions.

So why should you consider using cashless RFID wristbands at your next music festival?

1. Greater per head revenue. RFID wristbands have multiple convergent effects that each contribute to greater per head revenue. Cashless transactions are faster, accelerating line movement and motivating people to purchase more. They're psychologically less impactful than cash transactions, leading people who use them to spend more (an effect also seen with credit cards). And because the data generated from this digital system can help you optimize pricing and inventory, you can tweak miscellaneous variables to push your per head revenue even higher.

2. Greater attendance (and total revenue). Similarly, cashless RFID wristbands have the effect of boosting attendance and total revenue. People generally prefer faster, more convenient transactions, so having cashless wristbands for your event will instantly make it more attractive. Plus, this type of system makes it easy to offer discounts and incentives to attendees. You can even afford to reduce ticket prices thanks to the many financial benefits we'll explore momentarily. The bottom-line result is that more people will attend your festival – and since each person using a wristband will spend more, your total revenue should greatly increase.

3. Image and reputation. Some festivals and venues like having cashless RFID wristband technology because it serves the brand, making the brand and the event seem more futuristic and advanced. It's a signal that your organization is modern and optimized for convenience.

4. Theft and loss mitigation. At cash-heavy events like music festivals, it’s common to lose 5-20 percent of your revenue to theft and loss. But these losses decrease dramatically when you minimize or eliminate cash handling. Unscrupulous employees or volunteers mishandling cash also begins to become less of a concern.

5. Safety and security for attendees. While cashless wristbands certainly aren't invulnerable to theft or loss, they tend to be much safer and more secure than carrying cash. Wristbands will make your attendees will feel safer, and problematic incidents like theft and violence may decrease in frequency.

6. Shorter, faster lines. Even the most robustly funded, most supported festivals sometimes experience issues with long, congested lines. This leads to slower and therefore fewer processed transactions, as well as less satisfied attendees. Cashless RFID wristbands are simple and almost instantaneous, expediting most (if not all) of your lines.

7. Happier attendees. There are countless reasons to love the cashless RFID experience. It's easy. It's fast. It's convenient. It's safe. And it makes the dynamics of attending a music festival more accessible and more comfortable. As a result, your attendees will be happier – and they'll be much more likely to come back in the future.

8. Happier staff members. It's not just about your attendees; it's also about your staff members. Happier customers will have fewer complaints, shorter and faster lines will lead to fewer points of contention, and the simplicity of requirements for staffers mean that everyone on your team benefits from higher morale.

9. Better reviews and more memorable experiences. People reviewing and talking about the music festival are going to sing its praises if cashless RFID wristbands are central to the experience. That means more brand visibility and, eventually, more ticket sales.

10. Improved hygiene and comfort. This cashless system is also almost completely touchless, making it more hygienic than exchanging cash. Most people will find this more comfortable, and everyone will benefit from reduced spread of infectious diseases as more people adopt cashless wristbands.

11. Environmental sustainability. We also contend that cashless RFID wristbands are more environmentally sustainable. You won't need to print drink tickets, you won't need to print receipts, and you can be part of the movement to a less cash reliant society. There are also lots of eco-friendly and reusable options for RFID wristbands.

12. Competition mitigation. Cashless payments at music festivals were once unheard of; now, the majority of festivals are using them. Even if you’re not persuaded by the objective benefits of cashless RFID wristbands, you should understand that your festival could be seen as antiquated or outclassed by festivals and venues that have adopted them. In this sense, adopting wristbands is a defensive measure to prevent your competitors from eclipsing you.

13. Data/analytics. RFID chips make it easy to track and analyze data – and you can even track data in real-time throughout your event. During and after the event, you can scrutinize this data to learn more about your customers, pinpoint potential improvements to your product and pricing strategies, and ultimately brainstorm ways to make your next music festival even more exciting.

Cashless RFID wristbands do sound enticing – though admittedly, we are biased. It’s our job to make them sound enticing.

It’s your job to ask questions and make sure your music festival goes off without a hitch.

We’re here to answer those questions.

And help you see just how much of an impact our cashless RFID wristband system can have on your bottom line.

Whether you’re interested in cashless RFID wristbands or would prefer to accept cash and credit cards at your event, FastBar’s hybrid point of sale system can take all forms of payment.

Everything starts with a free demo – so contact us today, and we’d be happy to discuss the various options and work together to make your music festival cleaner, safer, faster, and best of all, more profitable.

5 Battle Tested Tips and Tricks for Deploying Cashless Payments at Your Next Event

Dealing with a worldwide pandemic made 2020 an extremely difficult year for everyone around the globe. For those of us in the event industry, it has been especially challenging – never before have we seen event cancellations en masse like we’ve experienced in 2020, and hopefully never again.

However, there is light at the end of the tunnel. As we continue to get positive news regarding vaccine efficacy, and countries have begun their vaccine rollouts, we’re slowly approaching the day when it will be safe to gather in large groups again.

When that day happens, huge pent-up demand combined with the innate human desire to connect will drive a resurgence of live events.

As event organizers start to make plans for events returning in 2021 and beyond, local governments, attendees, and event organizers alike want events to be as clean and safe as possible. Providing contactless experiences across the board will be paramount.

One of the most important areas for a contactless experience will be the bar and food stations – the days of handling cash and drink tickets are numbered.

Cash is no longer king

Cash has been used at live events since well, the beginning of cash, and it is still used heavily at events today. After all, cash is the easiest way to accept payments, right? I mean it doesn’t cost you anything whereas with credit cards you’re paying 2-3% in credit card processing fees! Actually, operating a cash-heavy event costs more and has a lot more challenges than you may initially think:

1.       Theft and loss – it’s an unfortunate reality, but most events that are cash heavy end up losing between 5-25% of their revenue due to theft and loss, otherwise known as “shrinkage”. One event producer in Seattle was telling me how his event had a backpack carrying over $7000 “disappear” as it was moving from one location to another. Did someone take it? Did it get misplaced and accidentally thrown out? Nobody really knows, but either way, they’ll never see that money again.

2.       Increased security, risk, and cash management costs – more cash means more security guards, more logistics to transport, manage and count cash (which means increased labor costs), and higher insurance costs. Not to mention your event becomes more of a target for thieves, which increases the risk for you and your staff. A friend of mine runs a large end of summer wine event in the Seattle area – before they went cashless, it used to take them around 4 hours to count and closeout over 20+ bars. After cashless, they were done in less than 10 minutes!

3.       Hygiene – having attendees and bartenders or other staff handling cash is a surefire way to spread viruses and other bacteria. This has always been a problem, but the coronavirus pandemic has highlighted just how much of a risk this is for events. As we emerge from the pandemic, attendees are going to want a cleaner, more hygienic way to pay. Event organizers are going to want to provide that for attendees, and in some cases, governments could end up mandating contactless experiences. According to a recent Mastercard study, 82% of people believe cashless is a cleaner way to pay.

Enter cashless payments

In the event space, cashless payments based on RFID or NFC technology first started to emerge around 6-7 years ago. Most typically, you’ll see a RFID/NFC chip embedded within a wristband.

Events tend to use these RFID wristbands in 3 key ways:

1.       Access control – using the RFID wristband as a replacement for the attendees’ ticket. It’s scanned at entry, and potentially in other areas within the event.

2.       Fan Engagement – using the RFID wristband to enhance and power experiences within the event, for example, a selfie station that allows an attendee to take a picture, scan their wristband, and immediately post to Facebook or another social network. This also allows sponsors to gather a lot of data about how fans are engaging across the event.

3.       Cashless payments – removing the need for attendees to carry around wallets, purses and phones, instead, enabling them to pay for drinks, food and merchandise by tapping their wristband.

If you’re considering using cashless payments at your next event, here are 5 battle-tested tips and tricks for successfully implementing an RFID cashless system.

1. Don’t overuse RFID – just take what you need

RFID does provide a lot of cool benefits – if an attendee can get one wristband they can use as their ticket for entry, and to pay for food, beverage and merchandise, plus use for sponsor engagement activities across the event, that would be awesome, right? In some cases, it is awesome! In other cases, it’s overkill.

In fact, it’s usually only the biggest events that will see the real benefits of deploying RFID across all 3 of these areas. Let’s take Coachella as an example: they have over 250,000 people attending a multi-day festival spread across vast festival grounds. The total revenue for the event is over $100M. There are tons of entry points and different areas, including multiple tiers of VIP and backstage access. They have literally hundreds of different “credential types” which define what types of people can get into what areas and when. Coachella is a very large, complex event – they have the budget and the use case that would support them implementing an “RFID everywhere” solution.

But most events aren’t Coachella.

It really comes down to answering one key question: what are the problems you need to solve for your event?

Is your event selling products like food, beverage and merchandise, or do your various ticket types include something, for example, 3 free drinks for VIPs, or 8 included beer tastings? If so, you’re going to need some kind of point of sale to help with that process, and cashless may be a good answer.

Does your event span multiple days, have multiple access points and lots of different credential types? Do you have many different areas that people are allowed into, or restricted from depending on the day or time of day? If so, you may want to consider an RFID-based access control system. Typically, RFID access control systems are only required by larger, more complex events. As a general rule of thumb, if your event is less than 20,000 people, you probably don’t need it. Although it’s not about the number of attendees, rather the complexity. I’ve also seen 80,000 person events who don’t really need an RFID access control system.

Is your event generating millions of dollars in sponsorship revenue? Do your sponsors require actionable data related to onsite activations and engagement? If so, an RFID-based fan engagement systems could definitely be something to consider.

To reduce cost and complexity of your RFID implementation, choose only the parts that you really need and will provide the most value for your event.

2. Know where cashless payment system provide value, and where they don’t

Of the 3 common uses of RFID at events, cashless payments is the one that’s most broadly applicable to a wide variety of events – anyone selling stuff at their event could potentially benefit. But just because your 50 person event could use cashless payments, should it?

Probably not. Besides budget, a 50 person event usually doesn’t have a compelling need to deploy a cashless system. This really comes back to what are the problems you’re trying to solve.

If your event meets one or more of following criteria, consider a cashless payment system:

• Over 300 people – while any size event can find value by way of improved user experience when using a cashless payment system, it’s usually the larger events that start to see other benefits, including an increase in revenue that outweighs the cost of implementation of a cashless payment system. Also, larger events tend to have more challenges around long bar lines, cash management challenges etc… which make them better candidates for a cashless payment system. Once your event crosses 300 people, you’ll start to see more benefits in implementing a cashless payment system. Over 1000 people or so, and using cashless payments starts to become a no-brainer when it comes to generating a return on your investment.

• You’re selling stuff – if you’re selling food, beverage and merchandise at your event, you’re going to need some kind of point of sale system to help with that.

• Event tickets include items – if your tickets include items, for example, 2 free beer and wine for GA, 6 free drinks of any kind + 1 free food item for VIP, a cashless system can help streamline this process for you. You can have these items automatically loaded onto attendee’s wristbands and avoid the need for drink and food tickets, and more accurately keep track of the product you’re giving away.

• Long bar lines – if you’ve got long bar lines that are frustrating attendees and staff, a cashless system that processes transactions in less than a second can dramatically reduce the time your attendees are spending in line.

• Cash management is a hassle – how much money are you spending on cash management today? What about staff time, and how much is that costing you? Cashless systems can help you save money, reduce hassle and recover valuable time.

• Concerned about theft and loss – if you have lots of temporary staff or volunteers and they’re handling cash, it’s usually a good sign you also have a lot of theft and loss occurring. Even the most well-meaning and trustworthy staff can make mistakes, for example giving attendees too much change when they pay with cash, and that can add up to significant losses.

• Attendees typically make 2+ transactions – the more transactions your attendees make, the more benefit you’ll find when you’re shaving 5-50 seconds off each transaction. If they just make a single transaction, there is less benefit.

Examples of events that tend to see benefits with cashless payments are music festivals, concerts, beer and wine festivals, larger social events, and corporate holiday parties.

Events where cashless tends not to work as well would be smaller social events, weddings, open bar events that don’t care about tracking and inventory control.

3. Start with a hybrid deployment

There are many horror stories of massive failures of cashless systems at events. In most cases, dramatic failures boil down to 2 key issues:

1. Poor technology

2. Events and/or cashless providers biting off more than they can chew

For an event organizer to resolve #1, it really comes down to working with a reputable company whose technology is battle tested, has multiple levels of redundancy, and is able to work offline to cater for the inevitable internet failures that will be experienced at live events.

Point #2 is where event organizers have a lot of control by choosing how broadly to roll out cashless capabilities across their event. For example, with a 20,000 person event, instead of doing a full cashless rollout on year 1, you may choose to deploy cashless for VIPs (let’s say that amounts to 10% of attendees or around 2,000 people) along with any General Admission attendees who choose to opt-in (let’s say 20% of the 18,000 GA attendees choose to opt in, or 3,600 people). In this example, you’re now rolling out cashless payments to 5,600 people or around 28% of your total attendance. That’s a lot more manageable than rolling out to 100% of attendees. Also, if your cashless payment system is a “hybrid” system, meaning it also takes credit cards at the point of sale, you’ve also got a built-in backup incase you run into issues with cashless payments. FastBar is an example of a hybrid point of sale.

When it comes to implementing cashless payments at your event, make sure you’re using a hybrid system that can take credit cards and RFID-based payments, and consider a crawl, walk, run approach. A smaller (but still meaningful) implementation the first year will help your team and customers get familiar with the new technology, and once successful, you’ll be ready for a larger rollout in year 2.

4. Avoid the #1 and #2 complaints of attendees: top-ups and refunds

Many cashless payment providers have adopted a “top-up and refund” model. This is where attendees add money to their RFID wristband by “topping it up” then spend down against the balance. After the event, if there is residual balance, attendees need to request a refund to have that money transferred back to their card or bank account.

Constantly “topping up” during the event is a hassle for attendees, and depending on the system, may not even be possible if the internet is down or spotty. Some systems will use an “auto top-up” model that can help solve the first half of that problem but may not work offline. Regardless, auto-top up doesn’t solve the next problem – refunds.

Most cashless payment providers will make attendees request a refund (it doesn’t happen automatically) and often charge a “refund processing fee” of between $3-5 to the attendee – just to get their own money back! Needless to say, this is an extraordinarily un-friendly practice for consumers, and attendees absolutely hate it. Some event producers and cashless payment providers take the view that this can be an extra revenue stream, and in the short run they may make a few extra bucks. However, this is very misguided and short-sighted. It causes attendees to think very carefully about the money they’re “topping up” and to monitor their balance to try and get to $0 remaining – this is actually the opposite of the behavior that you want to encourage. It also leaves a bad taste in the mouth of the attendee after the event. Is this really the final impression you want to leave your guests with?

At FastBar, we pioneered a tab-based payment system where attendees are only charged for what they use – it’s just like running a tab at a bar.

Avoid top-ups, and refund fees/hassle and adopt a cashless payment system that allows attendees to run a tab connected to their credit card – attendees should only be charged for what they use.

5. Avoid the #3 complaint of attendees: unclear pricing

Another tactic that some cashless payment providers will use is unclear pricing and event currency. For example, you may need to load $20 to receive 12 “event pearls” – the made-up currency for the event. Then a beer costs 5.5 “event pearls”. How much is that? Most people can’t do the mental math on the fly to figure that out. In this example, 5.5 pearls doesn’t seem too bad, but it’s actually $9.17.

Cashless systems have the advantage of being incredibly flexible to accommodate scenarios like this, but just because you can do something with technology, doesn’t mean you should. Event currency and non-transparent pricing is a huge source of pain, confusion, and frustration for attendees. At most events, attendees already know they’re in a captive environment and it’s not like they can go to the bar down the street for a cheaper beer. They’re expecting prices to be higher, but they’re also hoping prices are somewhat reasonable. The last thing the attendee wants to do is feel like they’re getting totally price gouged.

Avoid this by saying no to event currency, and yes to being transparent and clear with your attendees regarding pricing. You’ll field fewer customer complaints, your attendees will be happier, and they’ll keep coming back to your next events.

Summary

In a post-COVID world, pent-up energy and the human desire for events will drive a resurgence of live events. Cashless will be king as event organizers, attendees, and in some cases, governments, all focus on contactless experiences. One of the most important areas for contactless will be payments.

RFID technology has been used in events for a while now, including for access control, fan engagement, and cashless payments.

When considering cashless payments your next event:

1. Don’t overuse RFID – just use what you need. If you only need cashless payments, you can just use cashless payments without the cost and overhead of other features like RFID access control and fan engagement. If your event requires more than just payments, adopt whatever other pieces you need. Remember it’s a la carte – choose what makes sense and leave the rest.

2. Know where a cashless payment system provides value, and where they don’t. Not all events will benefit from cashless payments, especially the smaller ones where the cost often outweighs the benefits. Once your event crosses 300 people, you’ll start to see benefits, and once you’re above 1000 people, the ROI starts to become more evident.

3. Start with a hybrid deployment. Adopting cashless payments doesn’t mean you need to switch everything over the first year. Sometimes that makes sense, but often a hybrid deployment allowing people to pay with a credit card as well as RFID wristbands makes more sense. It reduces your risk and helps set you up for a successful full deployment at future events.

4. Avoid the #1 and #2 complaints of attendees: top-ups and refunds. Attendees loathe the top-up and refund model. Go for a system that can allow your attendees to connect a card and run a tab. You’ll make more money and your attendees will be happier.

5. Avoid the #3 complaint of attendees: unclear pricing. Avoid the temptation to use an “event currency”. Simple, clear, and transparent pricing will be better for attendees, and in the long run, better for you as an event producer.

If you’re looking for a cashless payment system for your next event, feel free to reach out to us at FastBar, we’d love to see if we can help.

Best of luck with your next event!

FastBar at SXSW 2016

At SXSW 2016, Anheuser-Busch had 2 key activations: the Budweiser Beer Garage and the Bud Light Factory. AB was looking for innovative technology to provide a better attendee experience, ensure people were enjoying their product responsibility and gain more insight from their marketing spend.

The Budweiser Beer Garage highlighted some of the innovative ways that Budweiser’s uses digital technology to improve their consumer’s experience, including social, mass-engagement efforts, in-stadium and on-premise (ie bars and restaurants) technology and their immersive 4-D Virtual Reality experience, which takes consumers on a virtual tour of where the original Budweiser product is brewed.

The next event, The Bud Light Factory was a music showcase featuring 6 different concerts over 4 days, highlighting over 30 different artists, including The Roots, Bleachers, Big Grams, Santigold, Yo Gotti and many more.

Both of these were very different kinds of events, but AB turned to FastBar to power the bars for each event to solve a few key problems:

• Provide a better attendee experience - when attendees arrived at the event, they received a wristband, The wristband was used at the bar to tap to pay in less than a second

• Ensure attendees are enjoying responsibly - each FastBar wristband was preloaded with a certain amount of drinks per day, depending on the event. Once an attendee’s allocation of drinks had run out, the bartender would be notified when the attendee attempted to get another drink, thus helping ensure nobody was overserved

• Gain more insight - in the past, AB would only have very high level metrics around the consumption and sampling at their events, for example “attendees consumed X Bud Light bottles”, “we went through Y kegs of Budweiser”. AB invests a significant amount of money in these activations, and they needed to be able to track better metrics and prove ROI from their investment.

By using FastBar’s cashless payment system AB was able to provide a seamless attendee experience, ensure they were compliant with local laws around responsible service, and gain far more insight than they could otherwise.

Here’s some of the interest insights they were able to gain from using FastBar:

• The exact number of attendees per event, including the number and percentage that actually sampled something

• The busiest and least busy times for attendee arrival, including comparing across days and events

• The exact number of products sampled, along with the breakdown of product type

• Precise times of drinks moving across the bar, so they knew the busiest and least busy times at the bar, and could correlate that with what else was happening during that time, for example, which performers were on during the busiest and least busy times at the bar

• Verbatim survey feedback from attendees, here’s a couple of examples of the survey comments from the actual attendees:

“The 4d thing was rad!! And ice cold Budweiser ain't bad either!”

“Awesome“

“Loved it”

“Awesome this was the King of Beers experience!”

In summary, by using FastBar, Anheuser Busch was able to take their activations at SXSW to the next level: enhancing the attendee experience, ensuring responsible service and gaining highly valuable insight into the success of the event.