London Handel Festival
A beautiful website design for a festival that celebrates beautiful music
The London Handel Festival (LHF) is the UK’s only full-time organisation dedicated to the performance and celebration of music by George Frideric Handel. Grandad partnered with LHF to design and build a website that reflected the timeless beauty of Handel’s work while delivering seamless usability and long-term flexibility.
Before design began, we worked closely with the LHF team through a series of workshops and audits. Through these, we identified opportunities to create a seamless user experience that supported both the festival’s busy season and its year-round programme.
Like many festivals, the London Handel Festival runs a high-profile annual season, followed by quieter months of off-season events and engagement. Naturally, it was important to us to build a website that transitions smoothly between these states. During the festival, the site switches to that year’s festival colours - all LHF need to do is check one box in their CMS. The homepage features a dynamic events grid, while the ‘What’s On’ section uses Grandad’s tried-and-tested design, featuring predictive search, multi-layered filtering, and rich event cards. At the end of the festival season, the What’s On page can switch to larger event cards and their classic brand colours.
Building on our long-standing experience with Spektrix, we integrated a full suite of ticketing and membership tools to meet LHF’s needs. Audiences can make donations to a chosen fund, gift memberships or gift cards, and enjoy a booking journey designed around clarity and ease of use.
Each event page is crafted with classical music lovers in mind, including space for performer details, repertoire information, and supporting content. It’s an experience that balances rich storytelling with clear, accessible functionality.
The site is powered by YouCreate CMS, enabling the LHF team to manage updates, create pages, and switch festival themes without technical support. This simplified workflow is faster, more flexible, and easier to maintain year-round.
Since launch, the London Handel Festival website has received glowing feedback from audiences and trusted members alike. It’s elegant, intuitive, accessible, and sustainable - a digital home that mirrors the beauty of Handel’s music.
