The California-based annual Coachella music and arts festival began the shift towards cashless payments in 2014. This year the transition continued with all vendors accepting Android Pay , Apple Pay and Samsung Pay.
The shift aims to increase sales of food, drinks and merchandise, as well as to move attendance lines faster and reduce the number of thefts of cash and plastic cards. Coachella festival-goers prefer cashless payments
This year the transition continued with all vendors accepting Android Pay, Apple Pay and Samsung Pay through POS provider Squares mobile wallet reader , allowing attendees to pay using their mobile wallets on their smartphones and smartwatches.
With a lineup of performers like Ice Cube, Guns N’ Roses , Kanye West, Snoop Dogg and Ellie Goulding and an attendance of stars running around who include the likes of Leonardo DiCaprio, Rihanna , Katy Perry, Taylor Swift and the Jenner sisters , it’s no wonder Coachella has become the best-attended and highest-grossing music festival in the world with attendance at 99,000 a day over six days.
Coachella’s six-day gross of more than $84.3 million last year dwarfed the competition.
Gopi Sangha , director of digital strategy at the music and arts festival organizer Goldenvoice , says to Forbes: “Coachella has been rather militantly cash only for the long duration of its lifespan, but over the past three years we’ve been watching our sales and seeing credit card demand here and at other festivals really scaling heavily – this is a trend that couldn’t be ignored and denied; it’s the way consumers want to complete transactions onsite.” Partnership with American Express Noting that 80 per cent of the youngest demographic pays electronically at some Goldenvoice festivals, Gopi adds: “The mobile drive is insatiable for us, we’re constantly on the search to make the experience a little […]
