London music festival goes completely cashless with NFC

Undoubtedly, one of the perils of going to a music festival is what to do with your cash. Do you bring it all with you and risk losing it in the melee and spending it all on T-shirts and beer? Or do you leave the majority in your tent and pray that some light-fingered rapscallion doesn't steal it?

This year's Barclaycard Wireless Festival will ease those worries somewhat by becoming the first event of its kind to go completely cashless. Vendors will all accept contactless payment methods.

Revelers will be able to load up a Barclaycard PayBand, which sits on your wrist, with dough beer tokens before entering the event and just flash them at the bartender. As well as forgoing the need to carry cash and cards, it should save time and ease queues too.

The festival vendors will also accept over contactless methods like QuickTap, an NFC-based mobile payments solution from Barclaycard and Orange and BarclayCard PayTag, a sticker that can be placed on the back of any mobile handset and works as an extension of a credit card.

Payments of up to £20 will be accepted using the payment methods and with PayTag or PayBand users won't have to enter a pin or sign their names either.

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.”