The Edinburgh Fringe is to become the first festival to allow people to use contactless technology to tip street performers, it is understood.
Artists entertaining at specific spaces along the Royal Mile will be equipped with special readers to take fixed-amount payments during the 25-day cultural event.
It comes after feedback which noted a drop in the number of people carrying cash.
Super Scott tries to show off the technology (Julie Howden/iZettle)
Scott Hutchison, who performs as Super Scott, said: “Until now I’ve relied on cash contributions from audiences and I have definitely noticed a dip as the number of people carrying cash has decreased.
“The introduction of iZettle Readers at the Fringe is really exciting, futureproofing street performance and offering audiences an additional method of payment when showing their appreciation.”
The Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society has partnered with fintech company iZettle to become the world’s first contactless tap-to-tip festival, according to organisers.
Six tap-to-tip stations will be set up in the Royal Mile street events arena for the 2018 Fringe.
It has been planned to extend the partnership over the coming years to cater for more of the festival’s street performers.
Andy Meldrum, street events manager at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society, said: “Our street events are open to anyone and attract performers from all over the world.”
Street performer Able Mable during her act on the Royal Mile in 2017 (Andrew Milligan/PA)
He added: “Artists rely on the generosity of the general public who stop to take in their shows when passing through our street event arenas.
“Whilst cash contributions have worked for street entertainers for hundreds of years, we need to respond to the changing circumstances, which are affecting street performers all over the world.
“Our partnership with iZettle is set to ensure our performers continue to get the support they deserve.”
Edinburgh Fringe performers perform a scene from their production in 2017 (Andrew Milligan/PA)
Readers will be available at Virgin Money street events.
The 2018 Edinburgh Festival Fringe will run between August 3-27.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here