Pleasance Website by Digital Manchester Agency Fudge

With the Edinburgh Fringe Festival less than two weeks away, digital agency Fudge have helped to kick proceedings off in style by launching a new website for popular festival venue Pleasance. Pleasance Edinburgh, along with Pleasance Islington, regularly plays host to the UK’s best comedians, including Russell Brand, Eddie Izzard, Frank Skinner, and Al Murray.

During the 2010 festival, more than 500,000 people will head to Pleasance’s specially created venues in Edinburgh to see the likes of Alex Zane and Stephen K Amos.

As well as showcasing events around the Fringe Festival, the new site aims to promote the wide range of events that take place at both the Edinburgh and Islington venues, as well as giving Pleasance the tools to allow them to build better relationships with their customers.

A key element of the new launch is a new integration with VIA, the ticketing system in use by Pleasance. Since launch two months ago, year on year ticket online sales have increased substantially.

Phil Jeffs, Technology Director at Fudge — “The project presented some complex problems for our team. The site is a critical part of Pleasance’s business and generates a large proportion of their total revenue, particularly during the Fringe Festival. In previous years, reliability and scalability have been major problems. The new site has been developed with this in mind and will provide a reliable sales channel both during the festival period and throughout the rest of the year.”