Wireless to be be fully contactless-enabled, should you want it

Wireless Festival happening in London's Hyde Park has confirmed that it will be fully contactless-enabled when it takes place over the weekend of Friday 6th until Sunday 8th July 2012. eFestivals gives you it's own take on this new technology, coming to a festival near you soon.

Other festivals, such as this summer's Isle Of Wight Festival, are expected to introduce chipped wristbands to festival goers to get on site instead of paper tickets this summer. However Wireless is adding a different option offering festival goers the chance to attend without having to carry cash by having a token 'Cash on a Wristband' system. But it won't be the only option organisers are keen to assure attendees that cards from other banks, as well as cash, will still be freely accepted at the event.

Wireless will have all vendors at the festival able to accept these contactless payments, allowing customers to spend less time queuing and more time listening to music. All forms of contactless will be accepted at the event including Barclaycard PayBand, a specially designed wristband that says organisers, "allows festival-goers to pay for goods quickly and easily using contactless technology."

Whilst the idea sounds a good one eFestivals has yet to hear of this system actually alleviating queues as it still requires your purchases to be entered and a machine to physically swipe your wristband to complete purchases, and in back stage areas where the system was trialed last year there were still queues, especially for the 'top up' machines, and soon you may end up looking enviously at those still paying in cash.

There's a slight time saving as festival-goers can pay for goods and services at the event by simply placing any contactless card, Barclaycard PayTag or Barclaycard PayBand on a reader, without needing to enter a PIN or sign their name, but often you're in the same queues as cash purchasers who don't take kindly to your 'queue jumping'.

Tom Gregory, Head of Digital Payments at Barclaycard said, "We are immensely proud to be the first to go completely contactless and offer the choice of a cashless experience at London's largest music festival. We're really excited by the possibilities Barclaycard PayBand offers as a wearable, secure and easy way to pay when you're out and about at the festival. Alongside QuickTap and Barclaycard PayTag, we're exploring the versatility that contactless offers as an alternative to cash."

The system is also painfully limiting in terms of the amount you can store on them. This year's attendees will be among the first to be able to make contactless payments at the new higher limit of £20, as the limit for contactless transactions increases in June from the current limit of £15. £20 does not, at London prices, get you an awful lot of drinks for your contactless cash, and unless you're tea total you'll be joining the 'top up' queue in no time.

To sweeten the deal festival-goers that receive a Barclaycard PayBand will be offered gimmicks including fast track entry, goody packs, the chance to win back stage tours, VIP upgrades and entry to the Barclaycard Unwind perk park with luxury loos and a photo-booth that can instantly upload their photos to Facebook.

Why Facebook? Well the wristbands are one day hoped to seamlessly integrate to the new 'stock exchange' floated Facebook, and will have all your log in details on them to allow this to happen without you having to even be aware of it. No doubt some people think that this piece of marketing is a good idea, and eFestivals suspects there's a lot of them out there in the UK. For evidence of how bright we as a nation collectively are just look at the fact that the public voted Britain's most talented in the land a four legged animal! Sheep would vote for a clever dog though wouldn't they?

But for those that think this is a good idea, there are help points, no doubt they will be needed, and roaming Barclaycard staff will be on hand to help with top ups, (don't forget your credit card and pin), and to report lost or stolen Barclaycard PayBands. Those paying with Barclaycard PayBand will benefit from the 100% fraud refund guarantee associated with all Barclaycard products.

Barclaycard PayBands will they assure us be live only for the festival period and will be deactivated after the festival. At least this time any remaining money on the Barclaycard PayBands will be refunded to the original card shortly after the festival, which is a small comfort for anyone who has ever been to a festival which operates the more traditional token system.

Users will be able to top up their Barclaycard PayBand online before the festival, or on site using any Visa or MasterCard credit or debit card (don't forget your card and pin folks). In addition, there may be queues at help points which will be positioned throughout the park to top up at any time or for those struggling to add up to check their balances. Once the wristbands are topped up again they can be used to pay for everything at the festival, from drinks to T-shirts, as well as say organisers, to gain access to their 'VIP' areas, where you can stand around basking in the glow of being in the same area as everyone else who also has a wristband.

Barclaycard PayBands will be available to apply for prior to the event, at www.barclaycardpayband.com. Numbers are limited apparently, so not everyone will get the chance to use them, and festival-goers are advised to apply early to receive their pre-festival packs, a £5 incentive for auto-top ups and most importantly, eligibility for onsite benefits. Although registration and top-up facilities will also be available at the festival.

Friday headliner is deadmau5, alongside Maverick Sabre, Knife Party, Feed Me, Ms Dynamite, Modestep, Gemini, Jaguar Skills, Childish Gambino, AraabMuzik, and Zedd. Drake will headline Saturday with support from Nicki Minaj, Nero, Example, Wiz Khalifa, Professor Green, Tulisa, Knife Party, The Weeknd, Labrinth, Clement Marfo & the Frontline, Dot Rotten, Chiddy Bang, and Dbanj. Rihanna will be headlining Wireless with Barclaycard on the final night, Sunday 8th July her only UK performance of the year. Also confirmed for that day are Jessie J, Calvin Harris, Labrinth, J. Cole, Rizzle Kicks, Kaskade, Flux Pavilion, Pitbull, Cher Lloyd, Madeon, A$Ap Rocky, Stooshe, Delilah, Theophilus London, and Angel.

There are still more acts to be confirmed. For the line-up details, and day splits, as available please click here.


Day tickets for Friday or Saturday are priced at £49.50 and for Sunday tickets were priced at £52.50 and have sold out, a combined Saturday and Sunday ticket is priced at £97, or a Friday and Saturday ticket is £94.

To buy tickets from Ticketline, click here.

To buy tickets from Seetickets, click here.

To buy tickets from Gigantic, click here.

To buy tickets from Ticketmaster, click here

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