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Work / Lagos Fringe

Lagos Fringe

A complete WordPress website rebuild for Lagos Fringe, Africa's largest creative marketplace and open access multi-disciplinary arts festival. Built with WooCommerce, Paystack, in-house event registration, and full SEO.

RoleWeb Developer & Designer
Timeline2025
FocusRedesign · E-commerce · SEO
Visit live site ↗︎
Lagos Fringe — desktop and mobile homepage

Overview

Lagos Fringe is Africa's largest creative marketplace and open access multi-disciplinary arts festival. When they came to me, they already had a website. The problem was it didn't look or feel like Lagos Fringe. Registration ran through third-party platforms that cost money. There was no blog. The site went down regularly. For a festival of this scale, that wasn't good enough.

What they needed was a fast, secure, well-optimized site that could handle everything in-house: registrations, payments, content publishing, and the full event experience.

Challenges

  • The old site didn't reflect Lagos Fringe's brand or vision.
  • Event registration relied on third-party platforms, increasing costs.
  • No built-in blog feature for publishing content.
  • Frequent downtime caused by unreliable hosting.
  • No option for direct payments or ticket/merch purchases.
  • Outdated design and severely limited functionality.

What I did

// SCOPE

I started by getting the brand right. Correct colours, a layout that actually feels like Lagos Fringe, and a live preview link so the team could see progress and give feedback throughout. Once the design was solid, the site moved to a faster, more reliable server. That fixed the downtime problem immediately.

01

Event registration

Registration forms built directly into the site. No third-party platforms, no extra monthly costs.

02

Payment integration

Paystack and WooCommerce integrated so the festival can sell tickets and merch directly from the site.

03

Engagement tools

Popups and countdown timers added to drive urgency and push people to register before deadlines.

04

Blog section

A full blog section so the team can publish articles, updates, and stories on their own terms.

05

SEO optimization

On-page SEO across the site plus Google My Business integration to help more people find Lagos Fringe through search.

06

Programme listings

Events and programme listings in a clean, easy-to-browse layout that works for first-time visitors and returning ones.

07

Team & board profiles

Team and board profiles that give the festival a human face and help build trust with sponsors, participants, and the press.

08

Security & hosting

Migrated to a faster, more secure server. Downtime stopped. The team stopped worrying about the site going down mid-festival.

Across devices

// RESPONSIVE
Lagos Fringe — tablet view
Lagos Fringe — mobile view

The results

// IMPACT
709+Pageviews — top page
89%Engagement rate — Take Part
In-houseEvents, payments & blog
Zero.Downtime after relaunch
Lagos Fringe — top content analytics
Google Analytics · Top content over 28 days — Festival Market page: 709 pageviews, 613 sessions. Take Part: 89.29% engagement rate.

The redesign gave Lagos Fringe a platform that truly reflects the scale and ambition of Africa's largest creative festival. The team gained full ownership of their operations — event registrations, ticket sales, blog publishing, and payments all running in-house — removing costly third-party dependencies overnight. The result is a fast, secure, well-structured site the team can run confidently day to day. Engagement is up, downtime is gone, and Lagos Fringe now has a digital home that matches the energy and reputation of the festival itself.

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