Bristol International Balloon Fiesta
Half a million people hit this site over a single weekend. Most of them are standing in a field, phone in hand, trying to figure out where the food is or whether the balloons are going up. We've been managing the Fiesta website for a few years now - keeping it fast under pressure, mobile-first for people on-site, and clear enough that nobody gets lost. When the weather changes the schedule (which it always does), the site updates in real-time. It just works - even when 500k people need it to.
Role
Lead Web Developer & Designer
Duration
8 weeks
Technologies Used
Challenges
- →Managing 500,000+ visitors during event weekend
- →Creating interactive event schedule and map for navigation
- →Real-time weather updates critical for balloon flights
- →Mobile optimisation for on-site attendees navigating festival
- →Vendor directory management for 100+ food and retail stalls
- →Ensuring fast load times with rich media content
Solutions
- ✓Implemented Cloudflare CDN and caching for massive traffic spikes
- ✓Built interactive maps with GPS integration for on-site navigation
- ✓Integrated weather API with real-time flight status updates
- ✓Mobile-first PWA design for offline access during event
- ✓Dynamic vendor directory with filtering and search
- ✓Image optimisation and lazy loading for performance
Development Process
Step 1
Analysis of previous year's traffic patterns
Step 2
Design sprint with stakeholder input
Step 3
Rapid Webflow development
Step 4
Load testing and optimisation
Step 5
Launch preparation and monitoring
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