Reaching the world

The Hebridean Celtic Festival is now attracting interest from over 70 countries from around the world. From the Sudan, Peru and the Philippines to the USA, Australia and Japan (and most points in between) people are logging onto www.hebceltfest.com for the latest news about the festival.

The website is our only 24/7 marketing presence and is naturally extremely important in our attempts to widen and deepen the festival audience. As part of a series of profiles on people, organisations and businesses which play a crucial role in supporting HCF, this question & answer article focuses on Reefnet, the company which develops and maintains our website.

Based in the Outer Hebrides, Reefnet was set up in 2001 by Anne Macaulay and Alex Tearse. Both had previously worked on the festival website and were well placed to improve it further. And since the two web developers were at the first HebCeltFest and most others since, they certainly have a thorough understanding of the festival and its internet needs.

They cite the creation of a forum and especially the introduction of online ticketing as two of the more notable milestones in the development of the website. They are also highly appreciative of the excellent graphics HCF get from 999 Design and the memorable photographs provided by Leila Angus of Brighter Still who covers the festival.

Other work that Reefnet is involved in covers a wide range of interesting projects. For instance, the company has just gone live with Archaeology Hebrides which has photos, maps, audio & video clips, and a timeline of archaeological sites in the Hebrides. Reefnet also develop websites for a number of clients from beyond their own shores and have even created a website for a fishing company in the Falkland Islands - a job which arose because they had already produced the website of the Falkland Islands Tourist Board!

We asked Anne Macaulay to come front of house for a change to talk about Reefnet's time with the festival and the role she and Alex play in ensuring HCF's success each year:

Q. Anne, what is the history of Reefnet's involvement with HCF?

Anne: I had attended the very first festival with my pals and was amazed at what a wonderfully social event it was, as well as providing excellent entertainment via the music (Wolfstone were the headliners that year). It was a great way to catch up with friends you'd not seen for ages and at that time there were very few visitors to the Festival - it was mainly just locals.

I got involved in building the first Festival website in 1997 while working at a company called Eolas. I built the first site which was initially just a small presence on the Eolas website. In 2001 Alex and myself set up Reefnet (Eolas had folded). As the relationship with the Festival was established it made sense for us to continue to develop the site. Over the years it has grown in size to include online ticketing, the Forum, databases for accommodation, links, news, interactive maps, galleries and loads more.

Q. Your support for the festival has been long-running. Why do you like working with HCF?

Over the years we've built up an excellent relationship with the Festival team, particularly Caroline, (MacLennan, Festival Director) who's become a great friend and always fills us in on the backstage news! We enjoy working on the site for various reasons - we love music, we get on well with the client and we feel that we are contributing to local culture and the economy by helping out.

Friday night at the Festival has become quite a party night for us, starting with the reception for sponsors and then straight over to the tent for the big Friday night act and off to the Festival club to end the evening. There's usually an abundance of sore heads the next day!

Q. A big milestone for the website was the introduction of the ticketing system. How big a job was that to complete?

Originally online ticketing was a link to a securely hosted form for manual processing. We have been involved in end-to-end e-commerce systems almost since they first became available and felt that with the volume of sales required for the festival, it was well worth considering.

We found a good service which was cost-effective and fairly flexible in its price structure and once we'd got the go-ahead from the team we set about building the ticketing system. At its heart the system is relatively straightforward; tickets and products are entered into the database by festival staff, and are used to generate a dynamic form. The user fills in the form, which then goes off to the secure payment clearance service for processing. When the result comes back, the users' details are updated in the database.

We have built two interfaces to this system, one for end users visiting the site, and one for ordering in the festival shop. Both use the same system. The system is integrated with the festival's mailer software for communicating with ticket holders. It's also capable of switching over to different prices and switching on and offline for when tickets go on sale and when the tickets are sold out.

We also have reporting functionality that allows the team to analyse ticket sales and helps with planning the following year's festival.

At the 2004 festival, when the ticket ordering was online for the first year, Alex and myself were standing at the back of the tent. Alex turned to me and said: "Do you realise that everyone you can see in this tent has bought their ticket through the system we created?" Looking at the sea of heads it was quite a thought!

Q. What challenges do you face in working on the website?

It's always a challenge coming up with a new design which tops the previous year's but things usually work out at the last minute and we get great feedback from users. Leila Angus also provides us with stunning photography and we incorporate some elements from the print materials which makes things a lot easier. The site is developed within a very tight timescale so we're usually working on it day and night for the whole of March, until it goes live in early April - I'm sick of the sight of it by the time it goes live but it's worth it when we get positive feedback from the festival-goers and we see the ticket sales coming in! It can also be a challenge updating the site the next day when you've attended every night, especially on a Saturday, but it's great seeing the photos so quickly after the event.

Q. Final thoughts?

Although the Festival has grown massively since the very first one in 1996 there's still a great atmosphere and you still bump into old friends, have a yarn, a wee drink and most importantly enjoy the music.

My absolute favourites are Afro Celt Sound System and Shooglenifty and would quite happily watch them every year. I'd like to see Led Zeppelin kick off their reunion tour at the Festival but may be waiting a while! I'll be taking my 3 year old on Thursday night this year so I've come a way since the first year I attended as a 23 year old with a carrier bag with 4 beers in it but I'm still loving it. Alex met his wife at the 1999 Festival and now has two kids so things change in life but hopefully we'll always have the Festival.