Roots N Blues N BBQ goes cashless

Roots N Blues N BBQ music festival will go cashless for the first time this year. Festival goers will only be able to use their wristbands to pay vendors.

Festival officials said people can create an account and load money onto their wristband before the event this weekend. They can do that here, and the instructions to do so can be found here.

Anyone who has paper tickets or will-call tickets will need to swap them out for a wristband. That can be done at Academy Sports on Thursday, Sept. 28, from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m.

Wristbands can also be picked up from will call or swapped at the festival box office. Festival goers just need order confirmation, printed paper tickets and an ID. The box office opens at 10 a.m. on Friday.

There will be kiosks available at Stephens Lake Park for people to “top-up” their wristband and add additional funds to it during the festival. People can use cash, credit or debit cards to refill their wristband credits.

If a wristband is lost or stolen, festival staff can get you a new one only if you have created an account before it was lost. Staff said they will deactivate the lost one and give you a new one as long as you have a photo ID. If you did not create an online account, the credit balance and money you put on the account can’t be retrieved.

Any credits that are leftover can be refunded within 10 business days if you used a credit or debit card. If you used cash, you’ll have to fill out a manual refund form in the online account page. The funds will be returned within 10 business days. The deadline to fill out that form is Oct. 29.

Any leftovers are subject to a $5 refund processing fee.