Eurosonic Noorderslag Switches To PlayPass To Enhance Cashless Offering

Eurosonic Noorderslag, one of Europe’s most important showcase festivals and music conferences, announced a partnership with 

​PlayPass that will see a new integrated digital payment solution rolled-out across 42 venues in the city of Groningen, where ESNS 2020 will take place Jan. 15-18.

Festival visitors, delegates and artists in attendance will be able to make payments at all ESNS locations using their choice of NFC wristband, mobile wallet or any payment card. 

PlayPass’ POS device will ensure that all digital payment options will be accepted on a single device, offering event organizers a unified data set for sales and consumption.

Visitors can upload funds onto their wristbands prior to picking them up at registration in Groningen’s Oosterpoort, the central hub of ESNS, or top them up on site at top-up kiosks. Visitors from the Netherlands and Belgium can top-up via the Payconiq mobile application, a popular form of digital payment in those countries. 

Visitors loading funds before arriving, can register an online personal account and use it to keep track of their spend history and topup credit on their smartphone.

PlayPass will also invite event promoters attending ESNS to a behind-the-scenes tour of its technology and operation, including a sneak peak at the data reports generated in real time. 

“We are very proud to become a partner to Eurosonic Noorderslag and are extremely excited to be showcasing new capabilities at such a prestigious event,” said David De Wever, CEO and co-founder of PlayPass.

“To date we have focused on providing a reliable system for events to decrease costs and optimise revenue. Now we are advancing to our next evolution which is about adding direct value by creating longer-term visitor relationships and unlocking new monetisation opportunities,” he continued without revealing anything concrete. De Wever simply said that the new features would be presented at ESNS.

 

ESNS Managing Director Dago Houben said, “In 2013, we were one of the first festivals to introduce cashless payments at our event. The idea was to prove that if cashless payments could work on such a complicated, city wide event, it could also work in a standard festival or event setup. 

“Over the years we have proven to be right and have made the system profitable for all venues, our guests and ESNS itself. It is now time to make the next step and improve on every aspect. With the state of the art system that PlayPass provides, we feel confident improving the quality of payments and services on all levels and for all involved. Frontstage, backstage, in reporting and administration.”

ESNS 2019 welcomed over 40,000 guests from 44 countries, including 4,100 conference delegates and representatives from 423 festivals. 342 acts were showcased across more than 40 stages. The 35th of edition of ESNS will take place Jan. 15-18, 2020. 

PlayPass replaces German company YouChip, which has been providing ESNS with its cashless solutions in the past.