Download’s new cashless system has experienced some initial problems, as the festival gears up for a weekend of heavy metal.

Early attendees have reported long queues and RFID wristbands that don’t contain the money they had pre-loaded.

Download is the first major UK festival to adopt a fully cashless system, with Dog Tag wristbands operated by German RFID specialists YouChip.

Festivalgoers took to Twitter to complain about the new system, branding it useless and reporting that they’d had to go without food or drink.

Live Nation, organisers of Download, released a statement: “Download’s new ‘cashless’ RFID system has encountered some minor technical issues, affecting around 1 per cent of attendees, which has resulted in extended queuing times at some information points.

“Many of those queuing will have seen the way we have responded by opening additional help desks, and the queue has now gone. However, we would like to extend our apologies to any festivalgoers inconvenienced in any way by these issues and assure everyone that they have been and will continue to be dealt with by a brilliant and dedicated team of engineers and festival staff.”

Here’s hoping it gets better for metal fans as the weekend continues, with Muse, Slipknot, Kiss, Marilyn Manson, Judas Priest, The Darkness, Slash and more set to headline.

For more on Download, look out for our July/August festival issue – out next month.