Oktoberfest venue will use radio frequency wristbands
Tap for food, tap for beer: Oktoberfesthaus is going cashless
Along with traditional dirndl and lederhosen, the radio frequency identification wristband is an accessory that many Oktoberfest goers will need to wear this year, and likely into the future.
The RFID wristbands will be piloted at the festival’s newest and largest venue, Oktoberfesthaus at Lot 42 in Kitchener, which has capacity for about 5,000 people this year.
People can load money on them prior to arriving at the “cashless” venue where they’ll exchange their ticket for a bracelet.
Tap for food, tap for beer, tap for a souvenir, says festival president Margo Jones.
For those not familiar, Jones says the technology has been used at other events such as the Boots and Hearts country music festival.
“A couple of our folks that were there said it was phenomenal,” she said.
“We decided — do we want to go out and pay all this money for security, for cash registers, for all this different stuff, when really, that’s not the way the future’s going to be?
“This year we’re going to bite the bullet with the new festhall and be the guinea pigs with this new technology for the other festhalls,” Jones said.
The wristbands are expected to shorten lines and improve customer service.
“The other part is it gives us an immense amount of information about the people that are coming to Oktoberfest,” Jones said.
While the annual nine-day festival remains a major economic draw, boasting spinoffs upwards of $20 million, numbers aren’t what they used to be.
The wristband — “that’s the future,” said Alfred Lowrick, Oktoberfest’s executive director.
“It helps us provide some good data for the future — what people do, what they won’t do, when they’re eating, when they’re drinking, when they’re relaxing in the venue being entertained … There’s some data we’re trying to mine.”
Lowrick said organizers did their research to understand the pros and cons, and believe the new system will be relatively
seamless.
Getting unspent money back at the end of night is easy, amounting to an e-transfer in your bank account, he said. However, there is a $3.50 fee.
“It’s a trial this year. We’re trying to keep things simple and see how it all works,” he said.
“Molson is obviously a big sponsor of ours and we’re trying, obviously, to have them remain as a sponsor, and they would like to have some data as well on what sells well and what time of the day it sells well.
“It’s a customer-service thing, and then you don’t have lost coins and a lot of excess cash floating around. It’s the security aspect, too.”
Lowrick says it’s imperative for organizers to stay on top of things and give customers what they want by making educated changes.
The concert in September featured country music, he noted, one of more than 50 changes to this year’s festivities that comprise Canada’s largest German Bavarian festival, still said to be the second largest in the world outside of the original in Munich, Germany.
“We’ve asked all our committees to take a look at what they do and say, ‘OK, we have our 50th anniversary this year, let’s do something special. It may just be a little thing, but pick something and make a change.’”
This year’s Oktoberfest celebrations kick off with ceremonial keg tappings in Cambridge on Wednesday, Waterloo on Thursday, and Kitchener City Hall on Friday.