A cut above
Set In the tranquil setting of New Forest National Park, Access visited Lime
Wood hotel for the third in a series of three Smoked & Uncut events, to see
how the family festival has swelled to 13,000 visitors
S
moked & Uncut has enjoyed a notable
rise in recent years with the event
now set over three days across June
and July at three of their different hotels,
The PIG-near Bath, The PIG and Lime
Wood.
Its relaxed atmosphere, passion for
good honest festival food and carefully
curated line-up has attracted acts such as
the Vaccines, Kaiser Chiefs and the Sister
Sledge.
Lotti Eagles, head of marketing for the
PIG and Limewood hotels, told Access:
“The crowd has become more eclectic
each year as the festivals have grown and
developed with new food offerings, new
bars, better bands, entertainment and even
the introduction of a Glamping village.
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There is still a core group which is made
up of hotel and restaurant friends but we
are now reaching music fans, food fans and
certainly making a name for ourselves as a
family friendly festival.”
This year the PIG hotel chain chose to
develop its cashless system from a token
system that they had been using as a
form of payment for the past four years to
PlayPass’s NFC technology.
The token system allowed guests to
exchange their cash for tokens, however,
last year the festivals experienced a
shortage of tokens, long queues and with
the expectation of increased numbers
for 2019, the chain engaged PlayPass to
alleviate these issues.
Eagles continued: “PlayPass just got us!
They were very used to events of our size
and really reassured us that this was a
great step to take in allowing us to offer
our guests the simplest and slickest form
of payment on site. The PlayPass system
benefited both the customer experience and
our experience as organisers.
“Introducing the RFID wristbands and
personal portals also went down very well
with our festival guests. We were able to
work with our brand partners and sponsors
to ensure we were charging fairly for every
item that we were selling, rather than
selling at the blanket prices we charged in
the past.”
Guests were prepped in advance of their
arrival about topping up their wristbands,
this meant queues at top up stations were
minimal along with the queues at the bars
and food stalls as well.
The system will be used to help guide
their plans for 2020 as organisers could
now accurately track spends and gain a
better understanding of what the visitors
enjoyed and what they didn’t.
Steve Jenner, PlayPass managing director
in the UK, commented: “It was a pleasure
working with Smoked & Uncut for the first
time, the festival really is something special
and we are delighted to be a part of it.
“We are excited about the future and
working with the festivals to build on this
data that the NFC technology provides.”
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