The Really Good Bar Company - Festival & Event Bar Specialists

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Technology

With technology and social media we feel more connected than ever

Using technology in a temporary environment at festival bars is always an interesting challenge. Delicate electrics often dislike dew and misty mornings as well as torrrential rain and dusty fields. Wireless and network systems can be seriously impeded by several thousand people jumping onto that all important data stream to update their facebook status and instagram accounts.

We are, however, living in exciting times where we have the choice to opt in or out of the current surging technological progress that is enveloping the industry. We have always been an early adopter of good technology, regularly testing out new bits of equipment and keeping abreast of industry innovation. Contactless is the big game changer as we often have up to 50% of transactions on cards.

In most cases we are working in remote rural areas with limited connectivity, so will use robust water resilient tills, provide cash machines and contactless card readers, running on a 4G network or satelitte. We also use iPad POS touchscreen systems, these give us and the event real time sales data on multiple bars but a network connection is vital for the success of these.

However cashless (RFID) is another up and coming option and we have direct experience of RFID systems at festival bars. In 2015 we worked on fully cashless festival bars managing the stock to virtual cash reconciliation at Download Festival using YouChip. In 2017 we managed all the bars at Standon Calling using the Playpass Cashless system which worked very well, both easy for customers and bar staff. Both were interesting insights in to how festivals could work in the future.

But ultimately technology delivery at events is determined by the level of available wireless infrastructure, 4G connectivity and budget. As part of our site planning The Really Good Bar Company always test the 4G connections at a proposed festival sites and put in measures to make sure that our tills don't crash during a busy music festival.

Technology at Festival Bars

Technology at Festival Bars