Street performers embrace 'tap to tip' card payments at Edinburgh festival

https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2018/aug/10/street-performers-embrace-tap-to-tip-payments-at-edinburgh-festival

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Noel Byrne is rallying the passing lunchtime crowds to the open air stage in West Parliament Square, just off Edinburgh’s High Street. The seasoned street performer is a Fringe regular with his comedy acrobatics, The Leap of Death. But Byrne is introducing a new element to his act this year: a contactless payment terminal which allows audience members without loose change to “tap and tip”.

The best shows at the Edinburgh festival 2018

“I’m curious to see if people are willing to use it,” says Byrne, who is also performing in an adaption of The Turn of the Screw at the Underbelly Cowgate. “It’s everyone’s experience that we carry less and less cash. I have a feeling people may be nervous abut using it at first, but having the Fringe backing should give them some sense of security.

“The hardest bit was figuring out how to build it into the show. It’s a lot of information to get across at a point where it’s easy to alienate the audience already. But I’ll certainly keep trying and I can see how it develops.”

The 2018 Fringe festival has an especial focus on street performance, with a new street events arena on the Royal Mile hosting more than 250 shows a day. Having consulted with street performers after last year’s Fringe, one of the key points that arose was the concern that fewer people carried cash, which reduced the amount of tips that performers were receiving. This year the Fringe Society has partnered with the Swedish technology company iZettle – which PayPal recently acquired for £1.6bn – to trial cashless payments through tap to tip units. It launched a similar scheme for buskers in London in May.

Around 90 performers have already signed up to access the portable units, which allow them to set a minimum donation amount, and collect their final takings at the end of the festival. The street events crew have been shuttling the units between the three new stages and six dedicated busking pitches.

The singer-songwriter Tash Bird, who is attending her sixth Fringe as a busker, agrees that cash takings have fallen. “It’s always a bit hit and miss in Edinburgh. Tourists still carry cash but locals tend not to, and a lot of locals do come to the Fringe because its such a nice mix.”

The Nottingham-based artist adds: “I’ve used it for four shows so far and it seems to be going alright, though I’m still getting more cash than card. It’s something that people need to get used to, but once they’ve seen it in action then they get the idea.”

Jas Josland, an indie rock artist, offers a similarly cautious welcome to the new technology: “As a musician, people come in and out and don’t necessarily wait until the end of the show to tip, so it depends if they see the terminal. I haven’t made a lot of money from it so far, but I still think it’s a good thing and it’s tipping into the future. Even from personal experience, sometimes I’ll see something and think it’s really cool but I’ll only have my card with me.”

Tap to tip: buskers start offering card payments

Josland says it is exciting to count “the coins at the end of the day.” But she adds: “The Fringe has done a really good job of setting up the units. Some shows I’ve forgotten to explain it but people have still come up and tapped. People do like things that are easy and the idea that they can keep an eye on what they are spending.”

However, some festivalgoers appear unconvinced by the new tipping system. Liz Harris is listening to an a cappella group on one of the Royal Mile stages with her two teenage daughters. Harris, who is visiting from Lincolnshire, says she had read about the iZettle terminals in the Fringe programme.

“I can see that the buskers lose out and they have their travel and living expenses too. But I’m not sure I’d feel so comfortable sharing my card information when I don’t know who they are. I’d feel better if there was a carnet of tip tickets you could buy and give out. I haven’t got my head around it yet, but I can see it’s a dilemma.”

Listening to a busking guitarist further along the High Street, Emil Veit from Walddorfhäslach in Germany, finds the new payment proposition “weird”.

“I think cash will go on to be used longest on the streets. You can’t be spontaneous using a bank card. It wouldn’t be the same.”

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