Explore the Project: Guildford Taste Festival

Client Profile: Guildford Taste Festival is a brand-new Surrey food, drink and artisan market event held at Guildford Cricket Club, built on the heritage of the club’s much-loved Beer Festival. Now in its next chapter, the event has evolved to be more inclusive of a new generation of festival-goers who are drinking less, widening its focus to artisan drink, street food, live music, tasting talks and family entertainment, all in support of the club and local charities.

Client’s Objective: The event planning, branding and on-the-ground organisation were already firmly in place through the client’s own team, so what they needed from us was a digital home to bring the festival to life online: a place to showcase the full programme, sell tickets, and give the many local producers and artisan stores taking part a clear, professional shop window, while making it simple for people to get involved as volunteers, performers or sponsors.

Project Scope: We designed and built a WordPress website using the Avada theme, structured around the festival’s two audiences: the businesses who exhibit and the public who attend.

The site brings the full “What’s On” programme together in one place, covering the artisan drink and street food line-up, live music, tasting talks, the Guildford Bake Competition, children’s entertainment, activity stalls, the artisan market and picnic areas. Ticket sales are handled through an embedded Eventbrite integration, keeping booking simple and familiar for visitors.

A key part of the build is the producer and artisan directory, giving every exhibitor, from breweries and vineyards to street food traders and market stallholders, their own profile with a category icon, description, photos and links, so people can browse who’s taking part before they even arrive. Alongside this, a dedicated “Get Involved” section with its own enquiry forms makes it easy for prospective producers to apply for a stand, for performers and community groups to offer entertainment, and for volunteers and sponsors to get in touch.

The whole site is fully mobile responsive, built with the expectation that a large share of visitors, both businesses researching the festival and attendees on the day, will be browsing from their phones.

Future Prospects: The site has been deliberately built to evolve. Right now it’s weighted towards attracting local businesses to take part, with the producer directory growing as new exhibitors are confirmed. As the festival date approaches, the focus will shift towards ticket sales and practical on-the-day information for attendees. With the festival set to become an annual fixture, the platform has also been built to be refreshed and reused year after year, and we’ve run a training session with the client’s team so they can manage the day-to-day content themselves.

Conclusion: Guildford Taste Festival now has a website that matches the ambition of the event itself, clear enough to bring local producers on board, engaging enough to sell tickets, and flexible enough to grow with the festival each year. It’s a strong foundation for launching this new chapter of a much-loved local tradition.

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