Music & Sustainability Festival
Start Where We Are Festival
A pro-bono, custom Next.js site for a Boston-area music & sustainability festival
Heads up: once a site launches, the client owns it and can edit everything themselves — and not every client is a web designer. Some of these sites have been changed since we handed them off, so the live version may not match the screenshots on this page. Any later edits, or sections that look broken, generally aren’t part of the work we delivered.
The Client
Start Where We Are (SWWA) is a grassroots music and sustainability festival in the Boston area — the Earth Music Festival, held at Bow Market in Somerville, Massachusetts. Founded by a musician who wanted to build a real event around live performances and climate action, this volunteer-run organization needed an online home that could sell tickets, recruit performers, attract sponsors, drive donations, and give a young event instant legitimacy.
The Project
I designed and built the festival's site from scratch in Next.js and React, contributed pro-bono as my part in a grassroots, volunteer-run event I believe in. It functions as the festival's entire online presence: a full-bleed video hero (“Can we Heal the Earth with music?”) sets the tone, and the site moves through the venue and location, a call for performers, sponsors and partners, press coverage, and a live donation drive.
Because a volunteer team has to run everything without a developer on call, the build leans on a few key integrations: GiveButter powers ticketing and the live donation drive (with a running fundraising goal), Google Maps embeds the venue (Upstairs at Bow, in Bow Market, Somerville) with directions, and Kit (formerly ConvertKit) handles email marketing and audience signups. The result is a fast, modern, self-serve site the founder can keep running on her own.
A Closer Look
Screenshots and feature sections from the live site.
The “Find Us in Somerville” location section, with a Google Maps embed pinned to Bow Market.
Design & Development Highlights
- Custom Next.js + React build, coded from scratch for a fast, modern festival site
- Contributed pro-bono to a grassroots, volunteer-run Boston-area festival
- GiveButter integration for ticketing and a live donation drive with a running goal
- Google Maps venue embed with directions to Bow Market, Somerville
- Kit (formerly ConvertKit) email marketing for audience and newsletter signups
- Video-first hero, performer application, sponsor showcase, and press section — the festival's full online presence in one site
Services
- Web Design & Development
- Next.js & React Development
- Third-Party Integrations
- Pro Bono / Nonprofit
Built with
- Next.js
- React
- GiveButter
- Google Maps
- Kit
Want a site like this?
Tell us what you're building and we'll show you how we'd approach it — no pressure, no jargon.
Start a Conversation