FREE FOOD AND drink was provided to attendees at an American football match in the Aviva Stadium on Saturday, following a technical issue which prevented card payments being made.

The college football match, which was between the Northwestern Wildcats vs the Nebraska Cornhuskers, saw card transactions unable to be processed for two hours due to an issue with the Aviva Stadiums payment provider.

Attendees at the game described packed queues at bars while systems were down, with people stocking up on drinks as queues grew longer and longer.

One woman who attended the game with her daughter said: “I went up to get some food and soft drinks for myself and daughter and it came to just under 20 euro. I offered my card and was told that ‘everything is free’ by the cashier due to a technical issue”.

“I then went to offer cash instead but was told cash was not an option. The queues were getting longer at that point and people were stocking up on drinks”

The queue for alcohol at Aviva Stadium right now because everything is free due to the internet being down. pic.twitter.com/JWS4IxyfxR

— Amie Just (@Amie_Just) August 27, 2022

Aviva Stadium had previously announced that it was going cashless ahead of it’s reopening in 2021, as part of efforts to increase service speed and reduce queuing times.

One Dublin man who attended the game told The Journal that the situation was “absolute pandemonium”.

“God bless the staff who made the best of a chaotic situation,” he added.

The amount of beer being given out led to massive amounts of hard plastic cups, with fans then constructing a ‘cup snake’ from one level of the stadium to another.

Another man, who travelled from Carlow to see the game, told The Journal that watching the snake be constructed was “brilliant” and that the entire event had a “party atmosphere”.

“The scenes where the guys were trying to get the line of cups to reach the second level were brilliant,” he said.

In a statement, the stadium’s catering provider, Levy UK and Ireland said that despite issues with payments, staff continued to operate the food and drink kiosks.

“Our team at Aviva Stadium were extremely quick to ensure that the fan experience was upheld and food and beverage kiosks were kept open serving customers for the entirety of this period,” said a spokesperson for Levy UK and Ireland.

The spokesperson added that the issue was with the payment provider rather than with the Aviva Stadium itself.

“Due to technical issues caused by our payment provider, SumUp, we were unable to process card transactions for two hours at Aviva Stadium during the Northwestern Wildcats v Nebraska College football match,” said a spokesperson for Levy UK and Ireland.

“This was not a technical issue isolated to Aviva Stadium or indeed Ireland.”

On Twitter, SumUp said that there were issues with “logins, payments and other services” from 5.30pm which ran until 7.30pm, when payments were restored at the Aviva.

“We sincerely apologise for any inconvenience this caused customers and would like to thank our employees at Aviva Stadium for the spirit they showed in keeping everything going,” added the spokesperson.