Event websites

Event and festival website development: what matters most

Traffic is not even. It spikes on announcement day, when the line-up is revealed, and in the last week before the event. So the site has to hold up exactly when the stakes are highest, and I plan for that from the start of the build.

Most tickets are bought on a phone, often arriving from social media. That makes the mobile purchase flow the primary concern.

In the final rush the organiser has to be able to make changes themselves: a new performer, a programme change, a venue swap. If that needs a developer, the site is built wrong.

The same structure year after year

I build the structure so the next edition only needs new content. For a recurring event that is the difference between a serious development cost every year and an afternoon of content entry.

The archive keeps previous years’ programmes and performers. For an event with a long history that is a value in itself, and it brings visitors from search too, because people look up past performers as well.

When the audience speaks several languages

With festivals this is common: local, national and international audiences at once. I build the language versions into the structure, with separate titles, descriptions and hreflang signals per language. That way all three audiences find the programme in their own language, in search as well.

Two events I worked on

The Early Music Festival of Miercurea Ciuc has been one of the region’s most important cultural events since 1980. A trilingual site: festival programme, summer university with masterclasses and participation fees, ticket sales and an archive, with organiser-editable content.

Humorfeszt, Cluj (a stand-up festival): performer profiles, the three-day multi-venue programme broken down by day, a countdown and ticket purchase reachable from every subpage, with a structure that can be refreshed year to year.