Eurovision Song Contest 2016 Goes Contactless

Visa Europe will sell wristbands capable of making contactless payments at this year’s Eurovision Song Contest, allowing attendees to pay for food, drinks, and merchandise in the Eurovision Village without the need to carry around any cash or cards.

This year’s contest is set to take place on Saturday in Stockholm’s Globe Arena, with the UK represented by Joe & Jake (pictured below), and up to 65,000 people expected to attend the final, as well as the two semi-finals and dress rehearsal shows, which begin from Thursday.

Snappy

“At this year’s event, Visa is creating a new contactless payments experience for fans and visitors of the 2016 Eurovision Song Contest,” said Christina Lind, country manager Visa Europe Sweden, who notes that the release is actually the launch of contactless payments in Sweden.

The wristbands will use Gemalto’s Allynis smart event platform and can be used at any Visa-enabled contactless cash register.

Wristbands can be personalised and users can access real time account information such as balances and payment history through an online portal. The wristbands can even be used after the show, staying active for use at any Visa terminal in the world until October 31 2016.

“Gemalto’s support for Visa Europe at Eurovision Song Contest 2016 demonstrates how the live event ecosystem is ideally suited to an extended NFC experience,” said Philippe Cambriel, president for Europe, Mediterranean and CIS at Gemalto.

“Our end-to-end Smart Event service makes it easy to look beyond contactless payments and embrace additional functions such as access, visitor entitlements and data management.”

Several other events have implemented contactless-enabled wristbands for payment as users look for a simpler way to pay. Last summer, the UK’s Download festival introduced ‘Dog Tags’ powered by German firm YouChip and RFID chips.

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