Electric Castle cashless: the 10 lei step, the 2,500 lei ceiling and the refund window

Electric Castle is fully cashless, on an RFID wristband, and there is one step people miss before they even arrive.

Register the ticket before you travel

Create an account, then register your ticket on the cashless platform. Only after that can you load money. Doing it at home takes two minutes. Doing it in a field with one bar of signal takes considerably longer.

Topping up

Online or on site, and always in multiples of 10 lei. There is no topping up 37 lei.

The window that catches people: on site top ups ran daily from 11:00 until 6:00 the next morning. Between 6:00 and 11:00 the machines are shut. In that five hour gap you top up online, then scan your wristband at any payment point to make the money appear on it. Worth knowing at 6:30 in the morning when you want one last drink and the wristband is empty.

There was also a ceiling: 2,500 lei maximum on a cash top up.

Getting the rest of your money back

This is where Electric Castle differs from UNTOLD, and the difference matters.

There are no cash refunds. The unspent balance comes back by bank transfer only, through a refund form. In 2026 that form was open from 16 July to 2 August.

So there is no walking up to a booth on your way out. You fill in a form, you give bank details, and the money arrives later. If you miss the window, the money stays with the festival. Put the closing date in your phone before you go.

The short version

Register the ticket at home. Load a bit more than you need, in tens. Remember the machines sleep between six and eleven in the morning. And claim the refund before the form closes, because nobody is going to chase you about it.

Everything else about the edition is on the Electric Castle 2026 page.