Cavendish Beach Music Festival: cashless gift cards and QR ordering across 48 outlets

For Cavendish Beach Music Festival 2026, Facilipay delivered a branded gift card and cashless payment programme with a QR-based online ordering channel for VIP food service, processing over $50,000 CAD across 757 activated cards at 48 outlets.

Client: Whitecap Entertainment|Murphy Hospitality Group| Cavendish Beach Music Festival
Industry: Venues & Events
Format: Written case study
Read time: 5 min

<h2 style="text-align: left;">The event</h2><p style="text-align: left;">Cavendish Beach Music Festival (CBMF) is Atlantic Canada's largest multi-day outdoor music event, staged each July at the Cavendish Beach Events Centre in Cavendish, Prince Edward Island, and produced by <strong>Whitecap Entertainment</strong>. Established in 2009, it draws over 60,000 country music fans a year. The 2026 edition ran from 9 to 11 July, with food and beverage operations delivered alongside <strong>Murphy Hospitality Group</strong>.</p><p style="text-align: left;">A festival site of that scale is effectively a temporary high street: dozens of independent bars, food trucks, merchandise stands and VIP outlets, each trading hard across a few peak hours a day, and each needing to settle its own takings.</p><h2 style="text-align: left;">The challenge</h2><p style="text-align: left;">Whitecap needed a single closed-loop payment credential that guests could use anywhere on site, without asking them to download an app for a three-day event. The requirements were specific:</p><ul><li><p style="text-align: left;">One card that works across every outlet, from the main bars to independent food vendors and merchandise stands</p></li><li><p style="text-align: left;">The ability to load value onto cards <strong>in bulk before the gates opened</strong>, as well as on site</p></li><li><p style="text-align: left;">A way to serve VIP food without the queues that come with a single high-demand outlet</p></li><li><p style="text-align: left;">Redemption across a mixed estate spanning more than 46 merchant IDs, without asking vendors to change how they take payment</p></li><li><p style="text-align: left;">One reconciliation view across the whole site for the operator</p></li></ul><h2 style="text-align: left;">What we delivered</h2><h3 style="text-align: left;">Branded cards with a QR credential</h3><p style="text-align: left;">800 cards were produced across three designs covering the operator's festival brands, each carrying a unique card number and QR credential. Physical cards kept the guest experience frictionless: no app download, no account creation, and no dependency on a phone signal at the point of sale.</p><img src="https://pdxgybcqigjepeuikhea.supabase.co/storage/v1/object/public/media/case-studies/uploads/1786975715356-r67dbb.png" alt="" width="100%" data-align="full" class="cs-img cs-img-full" style="width: 100%;"><h3 style="text-align: left;">Redemption across the Clover estate</h3><p style="text-align: left;">Cards were redeemable across the Clover estate deployed and acquired by <strong>Sonapay</strong>, spanning more than 46 merchant IDs and 48 configured outlets. The merchant ID estate was reconciled into a single account before load-in, so the operator had one view of the site rather than one per vendor.</p><h3 style="text-align: left;">Three ways to load value</h3><p style="text-align: left;">Value reached the cards by bulk pre-load from the Facilipay dashboard, by guests loading their own cards online, and by on-site top-up at Clover POS. That mix let the operator distribute pre-loaded cards to VIPs and partners while still selling and topping up at the gates.</p><h3 style="text-align: left;">QR ordering for VIP food service</h3><p style="text-align: left;">A QR ordering channel was launched for VIP food service inside set-up week. Guests scanned, ordered ahead and collected, with kitchen chit routing configured for the outlet so orders landed directly with the kitchen.</p><h2 style="text-align: left;">How value was loaded</h2><p style="text-align: left;">Across the programme, <strong>$50,571.64 CAD</strong> was processed to cards over 816 load transactions. Bulk pre-loading from the dashboard accounted for $32,690, guests loading their own cards online added $9,505, on-site top-ups at Clover POS contributed $7,175, and refund credits and adjustments made up the remaining $1,201.</p><div data-chart="{"type":"donut","title":"How value reached the cards","caption":"Total value processed across 816 load transactions (CAD)","unit":"

amp;quot;,"data":[{"label":"Pre-loaded in bulk","value":32690},{"label":"Guest loads online","value":9505,"color":"#0ab272"},{"label":"On-site top-up at POS","value":7175,"color":"#001e1f"},{"label":"Refunds and adjustments","value":1201,"color":"#d85555"}],"align":"full","legend":"bottom","centerLabel":"Total processed"}" data-chart-uid="chart_msxalvebslkcmu"></div><p style="text-align: left;">Notably, <strong>48.6% of all value was already sitting on cards before the gates opened</strong> — achieved with no pre-load incentive in place, which points to significant headroom for future events.</p><h2 style="text-align: left;">Trading pattern</h2><p style="text-align: left;">Guests redeemed <strong>$41,208.20 CAD</strong> across 1,372 redemption transactions. Trading built through the weekend, peaking on the Saturday, and concentrated sharply into the early evening hours between 17:00 and 20:00 each day as guests moved between stages, bars and food outlets.</p><div data-chart="{"type":"bar","title":"Redeemed value by day","caption":"Cavendish Beach Music Festival, 9-11 July 2026 (CAD)","unit":"

amp;quot;,"series":["Redeemed value",null],"data":[{"label":"Thu 9 Jul","value":12008},{"label":"Fri 10 Jul","value":12285},{"label":"Sat 11 Jul","value":16011}],"align":"full","size":"medium","legend":"none"}" data-chart-uid="chart_msxalveb4lj57z"></div><p style="text-align: left;">The two channels behaved very differently. Scan-to-pay at Clover POS averaged <strong>$26.83</strong> per transaction, while orders placed through the online channel averaged <strong>$44.48</strong> — roughly 66% higher. Online ordering generated 23.2% of all redeemed value from a single VIP outlet.</p><h2 style="text-align: left;">Where guests spent</h2><p style="text-align: left;">Every one of the 48 configured outlets took at least one card payment, and the top ten accounted for 70.1% of redeemed value.</p><p style="text-align: left;"><strong>Top outlets by redeemed value (CAD)</strong></p><table class="cs-table" data-align="center" style="min-width: 75px;"><colgroup><col style="min-width: 25px;"><col style="min-width: 25px;"><col style="min-width: 25px;"></colgroup><tbody><tr><th colspan="1" rowspan="1"><p style="text-align: left;">Outlet</p></th><th colspan="1" rowspan="1"><p style="text-align: left;">Transactions</p></th><th colspan="1" rowspan="1"><p style="text-align: left;">Redeemed value</p></th></tr><tr><td colspan="1" rowspan="1"><p style="text-align: left;">VIP Food Truck (including online orders)</p></td><td colspan="1" rowspan="1"><p style="text-align: left;">232</p></td><td colspan="1" rowspan="1"><p style="text-align: left;">$10,158.64</p></td></tr><tr><td colspan="1" rowspan="1"><p style="text-align: left;">Back Up Office (central)</p></td><td colspan="1" rowspan="1"><p style="text-align: left;">154</p></td><td colspan="1" rowspan="1"><p style="text-align: left;">$6,275.82</p></td></tr><tr><td colspan="1" rowspan="1"><p style="text-align: left;">Latin Corner</p></td><td colspan="1" rowspan="1"><p style="text-align: left;">84</p></td><td colspan="1" rowspan="1"><p style="text-align: left;">$2,588.98</p></td></tr><tr><td colspan="1" rowspan="1"><p style="text-align: left;">Merch — Country Liberty</p></td><td colspan="1" rowspan="1"><p style="text-align: left;">43</p></td><td colspan="1" rowspan="1"><p style="text-align: left;">$2,053.81</p></td></tr><tr><td colspan="1" rowspan="1"><p style="text-align: left;">Zigga Zigga Za</p></td><td colspan="1" rowspan="1"><p style="text-align: left;">70</p></td><td colspan="1" rowspan="1"><p style="text-align: left;">$1,987.71</p></td></tr><tr><td colspan="1" rowspan="1"><p style="text-align: left;">VIP Building Bar</p></td><td colspan="1" rowspan="1"><p style="text-align: left;">50</p></td><td colspan="1" rowspan="1"><p style="text-align: left;">$1,415.15</p></td></tr><tr><td colspan="1" rowspan="1"><p style="text-align: left;">Shangrilla Foods</p></td><td colspan="1" rowspan="1"><p style="text-align: left;">32</p></td><td colspan="1" rowspan="1"><p style="text-align: left;">$1,015.19</p></td></tr><tr><td colspan="1" rowspan="1"><p style="text-align: left;">CollidingTides Container</p></td><td colspan="1" rowspan="1"><p style="text-align: left;">50</p></td><td colspan="1" rowspan="1"><p style="text-align: left;">$999.82</p></td></tr></tbody></table><h2 style="text-align: left;">What it proved</h2><p style="text-align: left;">CBMF 2026 validated the model end to end: cards produced and distributed on schedule, redemption live across the full estate on day one, an online ordering channel launched inside set-up week, and every support item resolved remotely and same day, with no on-site support days required.</p><h2 style="text-align: left;">What's next</h2><p style="text-align: left;">Two clear levers emerged for the operator's next event. Extending the online ordering channel beyond a single VIP outlet would widen access to the highest-value order type on site. And introducing a pre-load incentive would push more value onto cards before the gates open, building on the 48.6% achieved without one.</p><p style="text-align: left;">With the platform, card stock and Clover estate already configured and proven, the same programme carries forward to the operator's September festival on the same infrastructure.</p><p style="text-align: left;">Delivered by Facilipay for Whitecap Entertainment and Murphy Hospitality Group, with Sonapay on Clover deployment and merchant acquiring. All amounts in Canadian dollars.</p>

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