A team of eight Weezevent staff were on hand to provide practical advice, guidance and support at Standon Calling in July, as the cashless payments provider marked a successful first year of its partnership with the boutique UK event.

Paris-based Weezevent, which provides cashless solutions for some of the biggest events in France, including Rock en Seine, Hellfest, Lollapalooza Paris and Les Vieilles Charrues, opened a London office in 2017 and signed the 15,000-capacity Standon Calling earlier this year.

“Standon are the festival experts when it comes to RFID and cashless technology,” said Weezevent’s UK country manager, Olly Goddard. “Their decision to become our first festival partner in the UK is an endorsement of our solution and reflects our intention to expand here in the UK, as we have done so in France.”

Standon, this year headlined by Rag’n’Bone Man, Nile Rodgers’ Chic, and Wolf Alice, in 2013 became one of the first UK festivals to introduce a cashless system. After working with two different RFID providers, it moved over to Weezevent for 2019 to take advantage of the company’s cashless and access-control solutions, which work offline avoiding the risks posed by an unstable Internet connection. (As Weezevent co-founder and CEO, Pierre-Henri Deballon, told IQ earlier this year, “If a festival can’t process payments, that’s like a normal business being closed for weeks…”)

All 180 festival staff at bars and restaurants, and 50 independent traders used Weezevent’s cashless payment system, while mobile partner Greencopper allowed festivalgoers who downloaded the Standon Calling app to create and top-up their cashless account online in seconds.

Andrew Snell, founder and director of One Circle Events, which runs Standon’s bars, described the new payment process as “slick, quick and fast.” Snell is no stranger to cashless – he also runs a cash-free pub in London – but is still impressed by the Weezevent system: “It’s seamless,” he commented. “The device is really nice to use – it’s about the size of your iPhone in your hand – and the staff are absolutely loving it.”

“Standon Calling’s decision to become our first festival partner in the UK is an endorsement of our solution and reflects our intention to expand here in the UK”

Despite Weezevent’s growing British footprint, Goddard said the company is committed to providing white-label services for its clients, rather than building awareness of its own brand among consumers. “Our brand is not important,” he commented. “What is important is the technology and the reliability of that technology.”

As an event that welcomes festivalgoers of all ages, Standon Calling also wanted to give families more control over their cashless accounts. Using Weezevent’s technology, access and buying rights were set depending on the age of the attendees, through RFID microchips attached to cashless wristbands.

“It’s the same account on multiple chips,” explained Goddard. “A parent will be able to control how much goes on the children’s wristbands from their phone. So rather than go over and give their kids a tenner, they have them as a subcategory of the their own account and give them a budget to spend.”

Goddard added that Weezevent had its ‘under-18’ mode activated at Standon Calling, which prevents those under legal drinking age from spending money on alcohol.

Standon Calling founder Alex Trenchard was impressed by Weezevent’s festival debut. “The Greencopper app integration reduced the need for as many on-site top-up stations,” he explains, “auto top-up working offline allowed us to increase spend while reducing costs, and the family accounts helped our family audience plan their festival spending better.

“I’m looking forward to continuing our successful partnership with Weezevent as we continue to make the cashless experience as seamless as possible for our attendees at Standon Calling.”

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Olly Goddard, formerly head of ticketing, touring and festivals, at Broadwick Live/Global, has joined Weezevent as country manager for the UK.

Goddard will spearhead Weezevent’s push into the British market, as the French RFID/cashless payments provider continues to grow internationally. The company launched in the UK and Ireland in March 2017.

Prior to joining Global, where he oversaw the company’s portfolio 16 festivals, as well as the 5,000-capacity Printworks venue in London, Goddard spent nine years at promoter Metropolis Music, heading up ticketing strategy and working with artists including Coldplay, Eminem and Oasis.

Goddard’s experience will “bring the right insights to encourage the adoption of Weezevent’s solutions” in the UK market, according to the company.

He comments: “I am delighted to be joining Weezevent and look forward to working with this innovative company to help futureproof the UK festival scene. Cashless technology is emerging as a feature of everyday life, from paying for tube journeys to buying a sandwich, and its importance will only grow.

“I am looking forward to working with a wide variety of festivals in the UK to help them benefit from Weezevent’s system”

“With high turnovers amassed in relatively short periods of time, festivals can benefit greatly from a switch to cashless, and indeed a number of events have already done so. Our technology can improve the customer experience, save festivals time and money, and give organisers access to data-driven event management tools.

“Starting immediately, I am looking forward to working with a wide variety of festivals in the UK to help them benefit from Weezevent’s system to operate leaner, more dynamic events, replicating the success that we have already seen in France.”

Speaking to IQ last year for issue 80’s cashless payments feature, Weezevent CEO Pierre-Henri Deballon explained the company has provides cashless solutions to the vast majority of France’s largest music festivals, and is hoping to lead a similar cashless revolution in the UK.

Commenting on Goddard’s appointment, Weezevent’s EVP, Europe, Isabelle Chevallier, who joined from Intellitix last year, says: “I am very pleased to welcome a new talent to the Weezevent family. It is a key hire for the further growth of the company in the UK, and I’m convinced that Olly will manage to restore confidence in cashless among British festival organisers.”

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