SOLAR WEEKEND FESTIVAL

For its 15th anniversary, Dutch music festival Solar Weekend wanted to translate its special vibe into a special site. Gewest13 explains how it did it

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A music festival held annually in Roermond, the Netherlands over four days, Solar Weekend Festival is built by creatives, for creatives. Gewest13 was tasked with designing and developing the website for this special event’s 15th anniversary. (1) There’s a dynamic look and feel to the opening page, with its kinetic typography and background video but all the while the distinctive ‘Solar’ logo remains in the top-left corner, acting as an anchor point for the navigation. (2) Lively and colourful video footage of events at past Solar festivals appears in the background and draws visitors into the website’s content. (3) A hamburger menu enables the visitor to navigate to exactly what they’re looking for quickly and easily. (4) Big and bold typography moves across the screen, grabbing the visitor’s attention and helping to add to the atmosphere of excitement. (5) The visitor can also access the rest of the content by scrolling.

There’s nothing quite like a good music festival and Solar Weekend is definitely one of the best. Hidden away in the sleepy rural town of Roermond, about 40 minutes from Eindhoven in the Netherlands, it not only brings together the biggest names of the moment in house, techno and hip-hop but it also has a uniquely imaginative and boundary-pushing vibe. Each year, 800 creative people and artists contribute to the festival with art games, beautiful buildings and playful theatres, as well as the legendary water gun battle with thousands of participants.