Payment Systems

During both events I attended last weekend in the Netherlands, I encountered something that I don't recall encountering before: Payment Systems aka Tokens. At both the OceanDiva event ship and at the A State of Trance 900 event, one could not spend cash to buy food and drinks; one had to first purchase tokens which could then be used to buy food and drinks.

Of course the tokens were non-refundable so you had to guestimate how many to purchase. A beer or soft drink cost 1 token, a mixed drink was 3 tokens. Since each token cost €3, prices were comparable to what you would pay at a festival in the United States.

The only time I had encountered something similar was at Pleasure Island in May, 2009 when they held a private DJ event inside club Motion. You had to pre-purchase tickets for the type of drink you wanted and then redeem the tickets with the bartenders. Bartenders didn't have to touch cash so it eliminates theft but from the perspective of the customer, it's not really user-friendly. Especially when the tokens or tickets are non-refundable.