
fest-bg.com
FIRST VERSION of fest-bg pops in web while back in 2013 as a private initiative of IanaTour. In was developed under prebuilt event WordPress theme witch was incapable to sustain the heavy load of information for all of the festivals in Bulgaria.
When we were approached by with an ask to revamp it, fest-bg was barely breathing, generating its pages for minutes. Its biggest virtue were its own existence. Back then, in its best days it received barely two or treee visitors.

Don’t just change, transform.
— Roy T. Bennett, The Light in the Heart
challenge
The new website had to not only fix all the failings of existence web site but was expected to be entirely new product – open national media, offering reach information to festival fans and to their organizers to offer possibilities for publishing and managing seamlessly their own information and to see in this platform a place helping them in event organizing and management.
Project have to be delivered at several for a year.

process
All accessible information about festivals were analysed and divided in adequate groups. Based on this research we created filter and search engine. Specially developed algoritme helps all search enquiries to be served quickly. We developed a service for creating a list of “favourite events” that could be saved and shared in social networks. Google maps were included in order to help geolocation search and orientation.
In support of the new project were designed entirely new graphic design and suitable iconography. Visual esthetic is simple and minimalistic, created graphic and typographic hierarchy makes lifts the weight of enormous quantity of information and it did not suppress the visitors. Quite contrary – it serves all their needs in order to find the best possible event for their weekend. We designed the platform not only taking in mind the needs of its final users but making it useful for travel operators and event companies.

solution
New product was based on WordPress because of the durability and durability of the platform. All data of first edition of fest-bg was migrated and was created special UI for administration. All pages of past festivals and events could be seen in its archive. Fest-bg could be really called general archive and main catalogue of all festivals and feasts in Bulgaria.



achievements
The project was presented in some of the biggest travel forums in Bulgaria and Europe – International tourist fair Holiday & Spa (Sofia, Bulgaria), ITB Berlin (Germany), World Travel Market (London, UK).
In 2018 fest-bg.com receives the Balkan Award of Tourism Industry and the next 2019 was awarded in category “The spirit of Bulgaria” in XVI International Exposition “The mountains of Bulgaria”.

But for us the creators, the biggest award always is the recognition of the end web users.

From unknown, barely existing in the outer corners of cyberspace, fest-bg grew up in a national media for festivals. Dare to carefully designed and developed data model it quickly took the first positions in Google natural search result pages, outperforming all of its competitors.
This natural traffic grew more and more reaching 30-40K users/mothly without any additional internet marketing strategies, relying entirely on website usefulness and performance.