Lichfield Festival's brand new website

The popular Lichfield Festival charity has been given a welcome boost in the form of a brand new state-of-the-art website, thanks to a local web design and digital marketing company.

The new site, created by Lichfield-based Cocoonfxmedia, is more user-friendly, more interactive and has a range of new features which have helped ensure the growing event meets the demands of an increasingly digital audience.

More traffic is being driven to the website where it is now easier to manage and book events online. The new site also enables festival organisers to analyse data about the demographic of visitors to the site which will help capture new audiences and shape future festivals.

Lichfield Festival background

Established in 1981, the Lichfield Festival is Staffordshire’s leading multi-arts festival and an important date in the West Midlands arts calendar. Staged over nine days, the festival hosts a jam-packed programme of world-class music, art and entertainment in a variety of venues across the city.

Cocoonfxmedia is an award-winning and growing Lichfield company which has been helping businesses improve their web presence and digital marketing strategies for more than six years. The company is keen to support creativity and innovation and was delighted to partner the Lichfield Festival.

James Blackman, managing partner at Cocoonfxmedia, said: “We had been looking for opportunities to work with a local charity and are particularly keen to support arts, creativity and innovation. We were recommended to the Lichfield Festival charity through our links with the Chamber of Commerce and were delighted to get on board by donating our services and expertise.

“The new-look website is mobile responsive, much easier to use and navigate, both for users of the website and organisers of the festival. It also looks a lot better. The site desperately needed updating and is now more fitting to the demands of today’s increasingly digital audiences.

“This will hopefully help to retain existing audiences as well as capture new ones. One of the big things we did was to improve the booking system so that tickets can now be booked through the Lichfield Festival website using the Lichfield Garrick booking system.

“Since the new website went live last month, ticket sales are up on last year and the festival has already sold out for some events. Traffic to the website is improved and they are now getting a better spread of people from around the country, including increased web traffic from London.”

Feedback on the new site

Helen Wiser, Chair of Lichfield Festival, said: “We are absolutely delighted with the new website that James Blackman of Cocoonfxmedia has built for the Lichfield Festival.  The company has been a pleasure to work with, offering advice and support throughout the project and accurately translating our ideas into reality.

“Despite a relatively short time frame and a wide-ranging brief, our new website came to fruition without stress and we are thrilled with the result.”

Lichfield Festival executive director, Jennifer Mears, added: “Working with James and Glen at Cocoonfxmedia on our new website has been a delight. Their creative ideas, support and general encouragement has been excellent and the Lichfield Festival now has a great new website we are proud to shout about.”

As a new partner for the Lichfield Festival, James and the Cocoonfxmedia team were invited to a special festival preview at the House of Commons last week.

The event was hosted by Lichfield Festival’s principal partner, London Midland, and introduced by Lichfield MP Michael Fabricant – one of the event’s patrons.

It was also attended by singing legend and TV personality Tony Hadley, who was revealed as one of the festival’s newest patrons. The Spandau Ballet singer and I’m a Celebrity star has agreed to lend his weight to the event as it continues to grow as the Midlands’ premier multi-arts festival.

This year’s Lichfield Festival takes place between July 7 and July 15 and will bring more than 60 events to venues across the area, from big names in comedy, folk and classical music to fringe theatre, free events and family shows.

More information is available via the new website at www.lichfieldfestival.org.