Adelaide Fringe Website

The Adelaide Fringe approached Katalyst Interactive in 2015 when their business critical website, infrastructure and ticketing sales system were straining under very high traffic, increasing user demands and high growth in their online ticket sales.

They required a digital partner that they could trust and provide a level of expertise that could deliver a solution to support the high traffic, complex data relationships and large infrastructure a real-time ticketing solution demands.

Katalyst partnered with multiple Fringe stakeholders to collectively re-imagine and deliver the Fringe’s digital presence. The website was redesigned with a long-term vision in mind and integrated into Via ticketing solution by Red61.

To simplify the extensive data input and management throughout the festival, Adelaide Fringe required a website with extensive integration into their internal Artists and Venue System that is used by Fringe artists to manage show information. The website was also integrated with an external event and ticketing management and payment gateway. Katalyst successfully achieved this architecture which utilises many API requests to ensure data is managed and transferred as efficiently as possible.

With year on year increase in ticket sales, Adelaide Fringe required a scalable solution that could match their growth. Katalyst architected a custom solution that implements data caching to provide quick and accurate information under extremely high traffic pressures. A clustered server environment allows for simple expansion whenever additional capacity is required.

Limitations in the systems managing events meant the Adelaide Fringe couldn’t offer the ticketing experience they wanted. Katalyst developed new capability over-the-top of the Adelaide Fringe systems. For example, a selling fast flag was developed to make customers aware when tickets to a performance are selling very quickly. Katalyst also developed an abandoned cart feature that will keep the contents of an abadon shopping cart and send an email to the customer to prompt them to resume their ticket purchases in the future. 

With thousands of events on offer, the Adelaide Fringe needed a solution that was simple for customers to browse and search for shows. Each user has different considerations based on whether they are booking a show in advance, finding a show for that night, searching for a particular genre, or even has particular accessibility requirements. This advanced filter system needed to allow users to easily segment the wide array of performances available.

More recently a new location-based feature, called “near me now”, was developed that will display shows at venues which are in the location proximity of the customer. 

To assist users browsing through shows, a Favourites feature allowed the user to keep track of the shows that they were interested in seeing. This Favourites feature is also future proof and allows the user to access their favourites from previous Fringe seasons. 

With so many artists competing for ticket sales, the Adelaide Fringe wanted to provide a level playing field for all artists and ensure customers get a wide variety of shows displayed. Katalyst developed a unique display algorithm which achieves this, and ensures there is not a display order that is favourable to one artist over another. 

The Adelaide Fringe has a wide variety of venues as well as shows and times. Katalyst designed a page that can display many configurations of shows and it does this in a way that doesn't confuse the user. The page also loads in additional event information from both internal and external systems. This is all done in the blink of an eye as a result of refinements made for each annual festival that have improved the design and engineering of the website.

Adelaide Fringe wanted to minimise administration time of the website. Katalyst incorporated their own open-source CMS. This powerful tool provides easy administration of content as well as integration with all of the customised control over events. Changes made within the CMS seamlessly integrate back into the Fringe’s external event management system.

With a strong brand presence in the market and the annual Fringe poster creation, the Fringe has a very popular merchandise offering. Katalyst extended the shopping experience beyond ticket sales to include the capability to browse and purchase merchandise to be delivered to customers. The website also accepts donations for the Adelaide Fringe Artist Fund as part of the checkout workflow. As an open-access arts festival, donations help contribute to the Artist Fund which Adelaide Fringe awards to several lucky artists each year.

Katalyst has developed a deep understanding of the Adelaide Fringe’s business, and established an ongoing relationship spanning multiple years. 

The web application delivers a solid foundation for the Adelaide Fringe’s future expansion in the digital space. The data strategy and supporting infrastructure provides a platform, which can be scaled to handle millions of dollars in sales and traffic over a condensed 3 month period.

In 2019, Adelaide Fringe has smashed its box office record with an impressive 825,000 tickets sold, a 17 per cent increase on last year – the biggest boost in recent years.

Highlights