Cultural inspiration and catering for individual interests

"The main task of the festival is to communicate the wide range of events in a way that both inspires visitors to experience something new and makes it easy for them to find exactly the type of events they are interested in," says Hans Jakob Stephansen, Head of Marketing at Aarhus Festival.

"But how do you give all the events the same opportunity to attract attention while catering to the very individual interests of the audience? It's a bit of a conundrum," he admits.

"We used to show all the events in one long smear, but our logic doesn't work like that. So today you can filter by day of the week and genre, such as music, art, urban space or children. You can also choose to view only disability-friendly events or free events - and generally filter according to your interests and needs.

Hans Jakob Stephansen, Head of Marketing at Aarhus Festival

Website, event registration and event calendar in one

The user-friendly event calendar has been developed in close collaboration with Illumi, which as a long-standing sponsor provides the entire digital platform for the festival. The platform is based on Umbraco CMS, and in addition to the event calendar, it contains a website of which the event calendar is an integral part, but where Festuge communicates news and more static information that has nothing to do with the programme itself. Last but not least, the platform has an organiser module where the many external organisers can create their own events.

Simplified collaboration with external organisers

"What's special about Aarhus Festuge is that we're not responsible for everything that goes on. In principle, anyone can create an event for the Festival. With our platform, organisers can log into the backend and register their events, after which we approve them and publish them in the programme. It's super easy for us because there's a flow that ensures we get all the right information."

For example, it's easy for organisers to list venues consistently and accurately. They can search for the right location, and they can even move the location with a pin to make it precise - for example, to a specific corner of the Botanical Gardens. It's very specific. That way we don't have to double-check a lot of information manually and it becomes a billion times easier for the audience to find the right place.

Hans Jakob Stephansen, Head of Marketing at Aarhus Festival Week

Organisers can also see in advance how their uploaded images will be presented in different views, and with a single click on an AI translator, they can have the entire text translated into English. This saves both the organisers and the Festuge staff a lot of work and once again improves the user experience - not least for the many visitors who do not understand Danish.

Here-and-now experience using geotacking

The audience and user experience is the central focal point of the entire digital platform. You can 'favourite' the events you are most interested in, but you can also spontaneously choose to see on a map which events are about to start near you via the Near you function.

Hans Jakob Stephansen elaborates: "We want to make culture something that doesn't necessarily have to be planned in advance. The Near You feature is inspired by well-known apps like Rejseplanen that solve a here-and-now need. Similarly, we believe that you can have a need for culture and experiences that happen in the moment, where you want to know what's happening - immediately. We believe this feature helps solve that."

Mobile-first puts the audience first

Most users access the Festuge website via mobile phones. Therefore, the web design is developed according to a mobile-first strategy. But of course, the design is responsive and works well on all digital devices. Using a login, the audience can view their saved events, whether they need to procrastinate at the office desktop or are on the go with mobile phone in hand. If you prefer an app experience, Aarhus Festival is also available as an app for iPhone and Android.

Mutual recognition and strong collaboration

The development of Aarhus Festival's event platform is a development that never stops. Hans Jakob Stephansen says: "Our collaboration with Illumi is very much about how we can constantly improve the communication and user experience. Illumi knows us so well, and they are good at being critical and constructive and thinking more long-term, so we don't waste a lot of time developing something that doesn't provide enough value."

I often emphasise Illumi as an exceptional partner. There is a great deal of trust, sincerity and a mutual recognition that is important in a collaboration.

Hans Jakob Stephansen, Head of Marketing at Aarhus Festuge