New Year revellers to leave cash at home as wristband tech arrives

Kiwis planning a big night out on New Year's Eve will be able to leave their cash at home for at least two festivals, with organisers bringing technology to New Zealand for the first time that loads credits onto wristbands.

Wellington-based 1-Night and Hamilton's AWOP will roll out the technology respectively at the La De Da festival in Martinborough and Rhythm and Vines event in Gisborne on Dec. 31

Revellers will be able to buy food and drink and enter the event with a swipe of their wrist, and event organisers will get back more detailed data on where money is being spent. Security at the festivals could also use the technology to block trouble-makers from buying more alcohol.

"You avoid all sorts of problems by running a cashless event. It reduces the opportunity for theft, speeds things up, and allows promoters to get real-time information about what is being spent and where," said Andrew Mowbray, managing director of AWOP, which stands for 'another way of paying.'

Ticketing companies already use barcodes and devices imbedded with a radio frequency identification (RFID) chip which is scanned upon entry to an event. What's new is the ability to add other functions including loading up credits.

La De Da festival director Josh Mossman said that cashless events are fast becoming the industry standard, making RFID systems essential if promoters are to keep up with competition.

"We wanted to use the RFID system because our goal is to provide punters with a seamless experience," he says.

New Zealanders have already embraced the use of iPhones in lieu of a ticket, 1-Night director Ash Fogelberg said.

Smart-phone makers "have been putting NFS (network file system) chips in phones for a while now, so it seemed logical to use this technology to make it really easy for people to buy and use tickets," he said. "At some events we are seeing about 20 per cent-to-25 per cent of attendees using their iPhones to gain entry."

Although the RFID cards are a big part of 1-Night's business, Fogelberg hopes that as the smart-phone market grows and the technology improves, consumers will be able to do everything from buying their tickets, through to buying drinks at the show on their smart-phones.

Google have been working with Mastercard to turn smart-phones into e-wallets. This technology would see all NFC equipped Android-based smart-phones capable of facilitating any transaction in place of credit or eftpos cards.

Fogelberg said that this technology, known as an e-purse, is a way off, but expects it to have a significant impact on his business.

"The business has kind of evolved as we've gone along, so we definitely hope to stay on the cutting edge and take advantage of improvements in technology," he said.