WordPress customized for Garlic Festival’s website redesign

2010 Hudson Valley Garlic Festival was a success and thanks [in part] to the new website redesign launched just weeks before the gates opened to its 22nd year. Kiwanis of Saugerties has been operating the popular Hudson Valley several decades since it became too large to manage for its founder. With over 50,000 visitors, the garlic extravaganza needed more management skills and lots more volunteers. One of the many conveniences offered its attendees and vendors was the website, which had quickly become outdated as new Web technologies were rapidly becoming required standards. Some of the new website’s requested functions was the ability to allow Kiwanis members to edit to its content via a Content Management System allowing better collaboration. In addition members wanted:

• Collaboration via a Content Management System (mentioned previously).
• Easy to use administrative interface (back-end) for authors and contributors to write copy.
• Clean and simple design (front-end) with intuitive navigation with uncluttered layout.
• A more interactive PayPal shopping cart which would allow changing ticket quantities before entering PayPal’s checkout interface.
• Full featured photo gallery to act as an archive for the hundreds of images that existed.
• Blog thread for open discussion on garlic-related topics.
• Search Engine Optimized for increased visibility and Web traffic
• Improved FAQ engine to answer general questions