Mobile Payments Now Available At 2014 Music Festivals

With 2014’s summer music festivals underway, mobile payment providers hope to entice concert goers with updated options for buying food and merchandise. Bonnaroo, Governor’s Ball and Lollapalooza offer music lineups over day-long stretches, and payment providers want in on the action.

PayPal Making Appearances

Among the biggest US festivals was Tennesse’s Bonnaroo. No stranger to social media apps, the festival has used Facebook and Instagram in the past to generate interest and engage attendees.

This year, PayPal entered the mix to provide cash-free purchases. Attendees downloaded PayPal’s mobile app to pay for goods and receive discounts from vendors. PayPal’s plan was to make transactions easier and faster therefore allowing concert-goers more time to enjoy their favorite acts.

To promote their app, PayPal created areas to provide music lovers with a unique Bonnaroo experience. Four safari tents focused on arts and crafts allowed attendees to make their own feathered headbands, while other PayPal zones included hammocks for lounging as well as roaming face painters.

PayPal also arrived in New York City’s backyard during this year’s Governor’s Ball. Again the PayPal app gave festival-goers the option to pay for and receive special offers on food and merchandise. PayPal provided extra WiFi to support online use and offered rented lockers to further enhance attendee’s mobility through the day.

Entry and Payments via Wristband

Not to be outdone, this year’s Lollapalooza will allow concert-goers to go cashless with a chip-enabled wristband. With Lolla Cashless, music lovers can wave their wrists around for entrance and for merch. Bonnaroo has used RFID-enabled wristbands in the past to allow entry into the festival, but Lollapalooza will be just the second time the technology is used in the US for payments (Mysteryland was the first).

Using an RFID (radio frequency identification) chip, the wristbands store user credit card info. Wristbands are mailed to ticket holders in advance to allow payment preference to be created beforehand. Vendors will have POS machines on hand to collect payments. Users enter a pre-established PIN number to verify their identity and guard against fraudulent purchases.

The program hopes to produce better results than payment apps which might clog festival WiFi signals and cell phone reception because of the concentrated size of users.

Payments Across the Pond

At this year’s Liverpool Sound City Festival, MPayMe allowed ticket-holders to download the ZNAP app and combine it with NFC wristbands to allow quick access to venues and faster line service. Purchases were authorized by tapping the NFC wristband on the ZNAP reader.

European CEO of ZNAP Hooman Mazaheri says the technology aims to heighten the concert-goers experience, “Sound City is the largest festival of its kind in the UK and staged at venues across the city, so having ZNAP’s technology to make access and payment quicker and more convenient through a quick tap of a wristband will bring real benefits for everyone.”

The idea of RFID payment wristbands may have stemmed from the 2013 Rocking the Daisies festival held in South Africa where NFC-enabled wristbands allowed users to pre-load money. Again, we see another example of Africa leading the way in mobile payment innovation. Gust Pay, the company who produced the app, reported that about 500 wristbands were used with about 10 transactions each.

Concert promoters must explore every opportunity to make the payment process more efficient. If mobile payments allow festival lovers a quicker wait in line, and if consumer data can be tracked and analyzed to maximize the following year’s offerings, then mobile payments may become a mainstay in the worldwide music festival scene. It is no secret that today’s music lovers have adapted to streaming services.

Spotify and Pandora are mainstays in the online music atmosphere. Mobile payment providers have taken notice and may see an opportunity to access consumers already comfortable with using cloud supported service. Time will tell if concert-goers embrace mobile payments the same way they have streaming online music.

Editor’s note: Lollapalooza was not the first to offer RFID wrist bands. Mysteryland did it prior.