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Music festival reaps benefits of cashless payment switch

Cocoon In The Park, an annual electronic music festival held in the English city of Leeds, has recorded a 39% increase in revenues just two years after making the switch to RFID cashless payments with Event Genius Pay.

The growth for this year’s event in July was calculated by using data from the festival’s last non-cashless, token-based event in 2016 and was achieved after the organisers implemented a series of recommendations provided by Event Genius, which had analysed data from the festival’s cashless debut in 2017.

Shane Graham, founder and owner of Cocoon In The Park, said: “Last year we decided to go cashless and saw the benefits of Event Genius Pay – for fans and ourselves – immediately. This year, by using the lessons learned from the data insights provided by the system, we were confident we could improve further.”

In advance of Cocoon In The Park, ticket holders were offered the chance to plan their budgets by pre-purchasing credit – to be spent on food, drink and merchandise – directly from the festival’s website.

On the day itself, fans then exchanged their entry tickets for a wristband equipped with a small RFID chip and had their pre-purchased credits loaded by staff. Customers could then spend their money by tapping their wristband at any of the point of sale devices at the festival’s bars and vendors, with the service acting to cut queuing times.

Graham added: “It sounds simple, but by letting fans spend more time enjoying the music, we’re helping them have the best experience possible. We saw this reflected in the incredible atmosphere at Cocoon’s 10th anniversary this summer and the growth will help us to deliver an even better experience next year.”