UK Cocoon In The Park Festival Increases Revenues By 39 Percent Using Cashless

Cocoon In The Park 2018
– Cocoon In The Park 2018
The festival’s promoters say they’ve increased revenues by 39 percent using cashless points of sales

The promoters of Cocoon In The Park Festival, which celebrated its 10th anniversary this year, July 14, at Temple Newsam in Leeds, England, say they’ve increased revenues by 39 percent using cashless points of sales.
The festival, which is curated by DJ Sven Väth and the Leeds based team behind Mint Club and Mint Warehouse, switched to RFID cashless payments two years ago, using technology provided by Event Genius Pay.
The growth, calculated by using data from the festival’s last non-cashless, token-based event in 2016, was achieved after the implementing the feedback Event Genius provided after analysing 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.”
Visitors of Cocoon In The Park were able 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 spend their money by tapping their wristband at any of the point of sale devices at the festival’s bars and vendors.
 
“It’s so easy for fans to get used to,” said Chris Toich, Founder of Outback Events, providers of the event production and bar operator services at Cocoon In The Park, “once they’ve bought their first drink holding out your wrist to pay becomes second nature and queues move quickly. There’s no fumbling around for change, waiting for a card machine to connect and fewer errors.”
 
According to Graham, it’s this which makes cashless payments so popular with fans: “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 tenth anniversary this summer and the growth will help us to deliver an even better experience next year.”
Event Genius Pay won this year’s Production Innovation Award at the Ticketing Business Awards for its cashless event solution. The list of events that used this solution include Annie Mac’s Lost And Found Festival in Malta, as well as UK festivals Frobidden Forest, El Dorado and Southport Weekender.