High-tech comes to festival wristbands

LONDON, Jan. 16 (UPI) -- Identification wristbands with microchips are showing up at major European music festivals with many more organizers considering the technology, experts say.

Makers of the wristbands say they combat ticket fraud and scalping and can be preloaded with funds to pay for goods and services at festival sites, the BBC reported Monday.

But some have criticized them as an invasion of privacy and complain they make festivals feel "too commercial."

The wristbands look like standard festival bands except they're fitted with a microchip that can be read by special turnstiles or hand-held scanners at festival goers enter or leave a venue.

Michael Eavis, a promoter of Glastonbury, Britain's largest festival, said he was considering using the technology he said "seems like an incredible system."

He did, however, voice concerns the technology could make his festival feel "too commercial."

"All the commercial implications of the chip are slightly worrying aren't they?" he said. ""I don't want to take people into a land they don't want to go into.

"And using information about people, I wouldn't be happy about that," he told the BBC.