Microchipped Festival Wristbands

by **fletcher** » 16 Jan 2012, 14:16

http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/16548000

An interesting article indeed - what are peoples thoughts on this?

I can definitely see the benefits of:-

+ No need to carry cash around, top-up before you get to the festival.
+ Wipes out touted tickets / people who have jumped the fence (Possible a negative point for some though!

)

Negatively:-

- Dont like the idea that they can track our locations whilst wearing them, but presumably its just for numbers in/out of main arenas / camping areas. Ultimately, for larger festivals, this would no doubt help with people management and increasing sizes of certain checkpoint areas that are busier...

Interesting that Glastonbury may use it....

by **PaulX** » 16 Jan 2012, 15:47

On the festival security and consumer convenience level, it obviously has great advantages if you're "on the grid".

Bit of a problem if you're trying to get "off the grid" though. I remember when festivals were about getting away from all this shit. That was, and hopefully remains, the ethos of Glade after all.

by **fletcher** » 16 Jan 2012, 15:50

PaulX wrote:I remember when festivals were about getting away from all this shit.

...and they still should be tbh. Festivals (glade especially) are the far and few weekends of the year when I can truly let my hair down....

by **sim667** » 16 Jan 2012, 18:17

I'd also heard about using this system to pay at the bar...... Don't know how I feel about that either.

by **siani** » 16 Jan 2012, 20:53

I'm very unconvinced about using them to pay for drinks. My bank card chip fails pretty much every 4 months without fail, and i keep my cards in my wallet, not on my wrist covered in mud. I also don't really want someone tracking who bought what at the festival, tbh. I might feel shame about all those comedy hats at a later date!

Other than that, and the fact that someone says they are uncomfy, i can't really find much to object to. It seems like it could save a LOT of time at the gates if they just posted you these rather than posting you tickets and having all the faff of exchanging them.

by **PaulX** » 17 Jan 2012, 15:28

sim667 wrote:I'd also heard about using this system to pay at the bar...... Don't know how I feel about that either.

Yep, the article does mention that they could be used to pay for goods - and that would obviously include drinks.

Note that Eavis hasn't committed himself to this system yet. It looks like he and other festival head honchos were invited to attend a presentation in the Netherlands, he showed up and is interested in the technical advantages of such a system - but he rightly worries about how it would be perceived by the punters.

by **baldmosher** » 01 Feb 2012, 22:00

However, Eavis did have concerns about whether introducing the wristbands would result in his, and other festivals, becoming "too commercial".

That's rich!

OK this is coming from someone who wants to get a subdermal RFID fitted at the first available opportunity, but I can't see the problem really. If you are the type of person to lose your festival wrist band, I can accept that you might have a problem with also having your cash attached to your arm. But then you'd probably be the type of person to lose your wallet, tent, and marbles and blag a lift home in your muddy shoes and the clothes you were wearing on Wednesday night.

As regards tying in this device with increased security, that perhaps does bother me slightly, but as long as the RFID doesn't carry my name and address, I don't see that there's any additional concern. Even if it did have my personal details, if I was caught selling drugs for example I'd expect to be detained by security and handed over to the police, who will surely find out who I am with or without a 'smart band' on my arm.

Band theft would replace tent theft, I'm sure

by **matty303** » 13 Feb 2012, 12:21

V festival has QR codes on it's wrist bands that are scanned as you go into the arena area (yes I know it's one of the more commercial festivals) so this sort of thing is kind of already in use.

by **siani** » 13 Feb 2012, 20:22

matty303 wrote:V festival has QR codes on it's wrist bands that are scanned as you go into the arena area (yes I know it's one of the more commercial festivals) so this sort of thing is kind of already in use.

whut.

by **matty303** » 21 Feb 2012, 14:23

siani wrote:
matty303 wrote:V festival has QR codes on it's wrist bands that are scanned as you go into the arena area (yes I know it's one of the more commercial festivals) so this sort of thing is kind of already in use.

whut.

QR codes? The strange square shaped things that are appearing, see here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QR_code