Digital Platform for Hungary’s Iconic Szeged Open-Air Festival

We developed a dedicated digital platform for Szeged Open-Air Festival, one of Hungary’s best-known summer theatre festivals.

Built on the same robust technical foundation as the Szegedi Nemzeti Színház platform, the solution was adapted to the festival’s highly seasonal character, distinct visual identity and programme-driven visitor experience.

The Challenge

Unlike a traditional theatre website, a seasonal festival platform needs to communicate a concentrated programme within a limited period while supporting intensive promotional activity and ticket-oriented visitor journeys.

The platform had to make performances easy to discover, present productions and performers in a visually engaging way, and allow the editorial team to continuously update programme information and promotional content throughout the summer season.

At the same time, the digital experience needed its own identity, clearly separated from the Szegedi Nemzeti Színház while maintaining a familiar and reliable content-management workflow behind the scenes.

The Solution

We created a custom full-stack digital platform combining a modern public-facing experience with a dedicated CMS and structured content architecture.

While the underlying content model and administration concepts follow the theatre platform, the public interface was designed specifically around the visual language and seasonal communication needs of the summer festival.

The solution supports:

• Festival programme and performance management

• Production and repertoire content

• Performer and cast information

• Editorial news and announcements

• Promotional banners and campaign content

• Image galleries and media

• Ticket-oriented user journeys

• Role-based administration

• Responsive experiences across desktop, tablet and mobile

• Structured and reusable content across the platform

Festival Programme Experience

The programme is at the centre of the digital experience.

Visitors can explore upcoming performances, discover productions and access the information required to move from programme discovery to ticket purchase with minimal friction.

Performance information is connected to structured production and performer data, allowing related content to appear consistently across different sections of the platform.

This makes the experience particularly effective during the festival season, when programme information and ticket availability become the primary focus for visitors.

Seasonal & Promotional Design

The public experience was designed specifically for the identity of Szegedi Szabadtéri Játékok.

Rather than simply reusing the visual system of the theatre platform, the festival received a distinct interface better suited to summer events, large-scale productions and campaign-driven communication.

Prominent imagery, programme highlights and promotional content allow the platform to support both everyday programme discovery and high-visibility seasonal campaigns.

Custom Editorial CMS

The administration environment allows the festival team to manage programme information and editorial content without relying on developers for routine updates.

Content such as performances, productions, performers, news, galleries, banners and promotional elements can be maintained through structured workflows.

Role-based access provides controlled administration while the shared content architecture keeps information consistent throughout the platform.

Structured Content Architecture

The platform is based on interconnected content rather than isolated static pages.

Productions, performers, performance dates and editorial content can be represented as reusable entities and connected across different areas of the website.

This reduces duplicated content, simplifies ongoing administration and provides a stronger technical foundation for future features and integrations.

Technical Architecture

The platform follows a modern separated frontend and backend architecture designed for maintainability and continued development.

Frontend
Next.js · React · TypeScript · Tailwind CSS

Backend
NestJS · TypeScript · REST APIs

Content & Administration
Custom CMS · Structured content management · Role-based permissions

Infrastructure
Containerized services · Managed media storage

This architecture allows the public experience, content-management workflows and backend services to evolve independently while remaining part of a unified platform.

Results

The platform provides Szegedi Szabadtéri Játékok with a dedicated digital environment tailored to the specific needs of a major seasonal cultural event.

It combines a visually distinctive summer festival experience with the structured content-management capabilities required for programme-heavy operations.

Key outcomes include:

• A dedicated digital identity for the summer festival

• Simplified programme and production discovery

• Direct ticket-oriented visitor journeys

• Independent editorial content management

• Structured management of productions and performers

• Reusable content across multiple areas of the platform

• Responsive experience across devices

• Maintainable architecture prepared for continued development