Lollapalooza is paving the way toward a cashless future this year, by allowing attendees to pay for their merchandise, food and drinks with their wristbands. The technology is aimed to improve security and streamline the festival experience, the organizers say, as well as gather data about buying habits.
Feeling a little of that NSA culture sink in? You should be. Each Lolla wristband contains an RFID chip, which allows concertgoers to connect to their debit or credit card, and add a PIN number. Once the hunger/thirst/merchlust kicks in, attendees will tap their wristband on a pad and enter their PIN code to pay on specialized point-of-sale systems. Cash and credit cards will still be accepted.
The wristband sports a six-digit triple-encrypted identification number which cannot be duplicated, unlike tickets with bar codes which scalpers can print out in multitude.
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Maura Gibson, president of Front Gate Tickets, says cashless payments proved popular during a test run at April’s Counterpoint Festival in Atlanta. There, 30% of all food and drink purchases were cashless, showing a clear sign of popularity for the service. “People who used it don’t really want to carry their wallet around” a festival where they can be lost or stolen, she says.
But what about ID?
Additionally, in the event of a medical emergency, first-aid staff can access a visitor’s emergency contact information through the wristband. And if you’re irresponsible enough to take a kid to a music festival and lose him/her, a lost child can establish their location by scanning the wristband.
How is the data collected from the RFID chip being used? Gibson walks a fine line between putting lipstick on a surveillance pig and outright digital nosiness.
“It’s not an attempt to track fan’s movements,” she says, but “one of the interesting parts about it is the ability to know what people like.” There’s an easy bridge from buying trends to tailor-made advertisements and digital discounts for particular products the concertgoer is more likely to buy.
“The sky’s the limit on that kind of thing,” she adds.
