While the Gurtenfestival started out as a small alternative cultural festival in 1977, it has since grown into one of the biggest music festivals in Switzerland. With around 20,000 visitors a day, an international line-up and a consistently peaceful atmosphere on Bern’s local mountain, it is one of my personal favourite festivals. So I’m all the more delighted to have been given the opportunity to realise the new website in collaboration with the Bern agency Kargo.
The Aare, which flows around Bern, was made the theme of this year’s festival and so I programmed multi-layered interactions and effects based on the element of water. For example, the background reacts to movements of the smartphone. The logo was also animated using the Lottie technology developed by Airbnb. Many micro-animations are not only intended to entertain, but also to improve user-friendliness.
The application is based on the CMS WordPress, whereby data is also loaded into the application via an interface. Accordingly, the festival administrators can independently publish acts, stages and timetables according to the media plan. In the background, data is synchronised with the website in real time and various open and protected areas provide guests and media professionals with all the information they need. During the festival, the number of hits will increase to around 70,000 visitors per day, for which several servers will ensure the necessary load distribution.
