The box office window, menu and notice board for a Chester music landmark

A live venue’s website is never a brochure. On the afternoon of a gig it is the box office window, the menu and the notice board at the same time, and it has to answer three questions in seconds: who is playing, what does a ticket cost, and what is on when I get there.

Alexander’s Live has been that place in Chester since 1991, hosting everyone from weekly open-mic and comedy nights to Bill Bailey, Jack Dee, Duffy and Ed Sheeran early in his career. The site we built carries the whole week: upcoming shows up front, tickets a click away through the venue’s ticketing partner, and the drinks, food and snacks menus for people planning the night around the show.

Underneath, it is WordPress, chosen so the venue team can update listings, menus and news themselves between gigs without calling anyone, on a site that stays quick on a phone outside the venue doors.