Goa's TimeOut72 music festival will have Tomorrowland's cashless wristband model

TimeOut72 music festival is bringing this year's biggest party to Goa's Vagator beach — and it's headlined by none other than rap icon Wiz Khalifa. The stellar line-up also features international names like pop star Jason Derulo, EDM star Martin Garrix, Grammy nominee Raja Kumari. Lucky Ali, rock sensation Parvaaz and Gully Boy Divine. And now, TimeOut72 has announced that it's going completely cashless — just like the biggest EDM extravangaza Tomorrowland.

IMAGE: NUCLEYA.IN

According to a Festival Sherpa report, TimeOut72 is set to have a closed-loop, server-connected, cashless payment system, which will work via the RFID-enabled TimeOut72 wristband. This will allow festival goers to have secure on-site purchases with 100% uptime. There are also going to be several refill stations, where you can top up your cashless account. And the unspent amount on the RFID card will be refunded to your bank account, with which you paid for the wristbands.

This is very similar to Belgium's Tomorrowland model — where you buy a wristband, tap the band on an in-stall machine to buy something, and get a refund on the unspent amount. This also saves festival goers the trouble of carrying and managing multiple cards or cash.

Talking about this new-age model, the director of TimeOut72, Argha Chatterjee, said,

All transactions are also digitally recorded with email notifications of each transaction sent to registered guests. Our guests are our number one priority and we will ensure all measures adopted only benefit our guests, making the experience worthwhile.

Interestingly, global music festivals like Coachella, which have been really cash-dependent for years, have switched to the mobile wallet system recently. However, they haven't done away with cash altogether. "When it comes to cashless, just as a festivalgoer myself, I don’t want to have things in my pockets. For Coachella, where so much of your experience, your itinerary, the way that you are meeting up with your friends is done through your mobile device, this seemed like a no-brainer where we should go to add value,” Amy Marino, the vice-president of digital communications and design strategy at American Express, told Forbes.