QR code-enabled tips to street performers at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival

Elkins, M and Fry, TRL ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3763-5152, 2025. QR code-enabled tips to street performers at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Journal of Cultural Economics. ISSN 0885-2545

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Abstract

Hat lines’ such as “take one or two pounds out of the wallet…and give me the rest” have been passed down and perfected by generation after generation of street performers. The recent rise of mobile payments has forced them to radically change tack, displaying signage with quick response (QR) codes that lead to cashless tips. We analysed data from the 2022 Edinburgh Fringe Festival to investigate factors the influence the audience use of QR code signs displayed by performers, and subsequent tipping activity. We find that what type of act is performing, when and where, and the sign(s) on display are associated with audience activity through QR code scans. Once a code is scanned, we find what type of act is performing, when and where, the sign(s) displayed, and the configuration of the webpage they are directed to are associated with tip activity. Our results provide insights into digital tipping and may help the current generation of street performers, beyond the Edinburgh Fringe, to understand how to incorporate digital payments into their shows and provide insights in other contexts where voluntary donations are sought through scans or tap-to-tip payments terminals.

Item Type:	Journal article
Publication Title:	Journal of Cultural Economics
Creators:	Elkins, M. and Fry, T.R.L.
Publisher:	Springer
Date:	28 September 2025
ISSN:	0885-2545
Identifiers:	Number Type 10.1007/s10824-025-09559-9 DOI 2505671 Other
Rights:	This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
Divisions:	Schools > Nottingham Business School
Record created by:	Jonathan Gallacher
Date Added:	13 Oct 2025 10:35
Last Modified:	13 Oct 2025 10:35
URI:	https://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/54550

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