Isle of Wight Festival goers will this year be able to use their contactless prepaid MasterCard PayPass entry wristbands to pay for products and services (view press release). As part of a trial, 13,000 ticket holders will receive PayPass wristbands prior to the event which can be used to pay for purchases of GBP 20 or less and top-up automatically. RFID technology is used to transfer data from the tag attached to the wristband to the contactless readers installed at locations around the festival.

The auto top-up feature enables the user to load between GBP10 and GBP20 up to three times a day when the balance drops below GBP20. GBP 500 is the maximum amount that can be loaded onto a wristband throughout the festival and any unspent funds get refunded back to customer at the end of the event. Users will be sent an SMS message which shows their wristband balance when running low on funds or following an auto top-up. Mobile balance readers will be made available at designated customer service points where users can tap their wristbands to see their balance.

“Building on the success of the last two years, MasterCard is continuing to enhance the festival experience for music fans, by using our innovation to enable simple, safe and smart payments,” said president of MasterCard UK & Ireland, Marion King. “This year’s trial is the latest milestone in the journey towards a truly ‘cashless’ environment, as festival goers look to spend less time queuing and more time enjoying their favourite bands.”

PayPass cards and devices are issued for use at more than 557, 000 merchant locations in 41 countries worldwide.