The neon inexperienced fanny pack strapped round Annabel Hess’ skinny denims carried all of the necessities for a music competition: bank card, driver’s license, cellphone, Chapstick.
And her passport.
The 25-year-old concertgoer wasn’t headed in a foreign country after Miranda Lambert closed the primary evening of this 12 months’s annual Country LakeShake competition on the Huntington Bank Pavilion at Northerly Island. She introduced it to enroll in TSA PreCheck, the federal government’s expedited airport safety program.
Hess, an everyday traveler, had been that means to enroll so she now not has to beg different passengers to chop the safety line when she’s working late for a flight. Her roommate has had PreCheck since school and noticed the competition’s pitch about enrolling on-site and getting a quick go by means of competition safety as a bonus.
”This was a straightforward alternative,’’ Hess mentioned. “So right here I’m.’’
She signed up contained in the green-and-purple Identogo RV outdoors the competition gates in about 10 minutes, then headed for the fast-pass line to get into the competition.
Identogo by Idemia, which handles TSA PreCheck enrollment underneath a authorities contract, has been making an attempt to spice up PreCheck enrollment by providing signups at nontraditional areas. Most folks enroll at an airport or a common enrollment middle run by Idemia. Beside music festivals, Identogo has expanded enrollment to incorporate workplace provide retailer Staples and sporting occasions together with, starting this 12 months, Boston Red Sox video games at Fenway Park.
”What we’re making an attempt to do is make it extra handy for folks to enroll,’’ mentioned Charles Carroll, senior vice chairman of Idemia. “Take away all of the friction factors.’’
PreCheck signups started at festivals a number of years in the past in a partnership with live performance promoter LiveNation and have been ramped up this 12 months, with LiveNation and at different occasions, Carroll mentioned. The RV was parked on the BottleRock Napa Valley musical competition in northern California in late May and spent the primary weekend in June at CMA Fest in Nashville, Tennessee.
Angie Hamblen, senior supervisor of selling and occasion promotions for Idemia, oversees the PreCheck RV at occasions across the nation. Hamblen mentioned the cell enrollment facilities fielded a whole lot of questions on what PreCheck is within the first few years, however now persons are conversant in it. “Now, it’s: ‘How do I do this? How do I sign up?’ ‘’
In a one-hour span on the LakeShake competition, 10 concertgoers filed in to the RV to enroll, together with a mom and her two daughters and the spouse of a frequent flyer who already had PreCheck.
The competition signup lineup continues in mid-July with the Forecastle music competition in Louisville, Kentucky. This fall, concertgoers will probably be in a position to enroll in PreCheck at Moon River Festival in Chattanooga, Tennessee, Music Midtown in Atlanta and Voodoo Music + Arts Experience in New Orleans.
Carroll mentioned the nontraditional venues have a tendency to attract extra trip vacationers to PreCheck, in contrast with frequent enterprise vacationers at airport areas.
Festivals additionally assist to attract in millennials, resembling Hess and Kate Hansell, a 28-year-old Chicagoan who additionally enrolled at LakeShake.
Hansell, who has attended the three-day competition ever because it debuted 5 years in the past, travels a number of occasions a 12 months and was bored with being caught in the usual TSA line on the airport.
”People I journey with all appear to have it, they usually appear to get by means of sooner than me,’’ Hansell mentioned.
She accomplished the net utility for PreCheck earlier this 12 months, however the closest enrollment middle to her workplace had closed. Members have to go to a middle for a background examine and fingerprinting.
When she heard about sign-ups at LakeShake — the competition promotes this system closely as a part of Identogo’s sponsorship — she determined to convey her passport and enroll.
She was accredited per week later and shortly after used the PreCheck lane at O’Hare Airport.
Read extra at USA Today.