AUSTRIA: Festival-goers at this year’s Snowbombing, which takes place from April 6 – 11 in Mayrhofen, Austria, will experience the future of hassle-free buying thanks to the introduction of RFID-enabled wristbands.
The winter sports and music festival, which is set to welcome 7,000 visitors, will go 100% cashless for the first time.
Snowbombers’ special wristbands will be linked to their own personalised online account, which can be charged up with cash before arriving. During the festival, guests can simply tap their wristbands on scanners to buy drinks, food and merchandise. The wristbands will also act as the official entrance ticket to the festival.
“You can access our venues and events faster and use your wristband to make purchases across the festival site,” said Gareth Cooper, Founder of Snowbombing. “This cashless technology enables us to deliver live stages and bars in some of the most inspiring, inaccessible and remote festival locations in the world and helps make Snowbombing truly unforgettable.”
2015 is predicted to be the year of the cashless festival and Snowbombing organiser Broadwick Live is working with market leader Intellitix to implement this technology across the festival.
Serge Grimaux, Intellitix CEO, commented: “We’re incredibly excited to be working with Broadwick Live and integrate our technology across the Snowbombing site. The festival is completely unique and puts its customers’ experience first at every turn. Introducing our access and cashless system will improve this experience even further; letting people focus on the music and, of course, the snow! Our system is proven to work across any temperature, a vital consideration in this case. It also increases transaction speeds and removes the need to carry cash, which is the last thing you want to worry about when you’re about to hit the slopes. We’re looking forward to working with Broadwick Live for this and future events.”
Beyond saving time, festival-goers will benefit from more favourable exchange rates, having less to carry, and security from losing cash and theft. Any unspent credit will be refunded, so there’s no need to worry about loading too much money.
“We are always striving to implement the latest technologies at our events and we wanted to banish the inconvenience of carrying cash, navigating currency exchange and unfurling snow-soaked euro notes and give our audience the opportunity to maximise their time and have best possible experiences at our events” said Bradley Thompson, Director of Broadwick Live.
Details of how to set up a Snowbombing Cashless Account are sent out with tickets. Once registration is complete, money can be loaded. Then on arrival at the festival, e-tickets are exchanged for smart wristbands linked to the cashless account and the spending can begin.
Photo credit: Danny North
