VillageFest Board hears marketing plan, discusses website overhaul needs

The Palm Springs VillageFest Board received an update on branding and marketing efforts during a special meeting Jan. 26, learning the weekly street market’s outdated website requires a complete overhaul estimated at $24,000.

Barbara Beran from Tripepi Smith, the city’s communications consultant for VillageFest, presented findings from community listening sessions and outlined a comprehensive marketing strategy focused on revitalizing the brand, elevating the visitor experience and increasing engagement with locals, tourists, vendors and community partners.

“VillageFest has strong brand reputation,” Beran said. “Our work really focuses on revitalizing the brand, elevating the experience and increasing engagement with local tourist, vendors, performers and community partners.”

The presentation highlighted key challenges facing the 35-year-old weekly event, including a need to counter a “swap meet” perception among some residents and strengthen VillageFest’s digital presence and storytelling.

Parks and Recreation Director Nick Gonzalez explained the current website is more than 10 years old and cannot support basic functions the organization wants to implement.

“We can’t even edit items on the web page because it’s that old,” Gonzalez said. “We are non-compliant in a lot of the areas that we need to be really compliant.”

Gonzalez said the city has explored costs for a website overhaul, which would run approximately $24,000. The outdated platform prevents VillageFest from offering electronic vendor applications, online payment processing and digital mapping tools to show vendor locations.

“We have a lot of that technology already. We just don’t have a website that can support it,” Gonzalez said.

Beran emphasized that strong brand recognition requires intentional, consistent visual storytelling. “You don’t need to see a logo to know that another red means Coca Cola or green mermaid means Starbucks,” she said. “VillageFest really deserves that same level of brand attention.”

The marketing plan developed by Tripepi Smith includes four seasonal campaigns designed to keep VillageFest fresh year-round and re-engage locals who feel they have already experienced the event. The firm established five metrics to measure success and defined target audiences as attendees, partners, performers and community partners.

Tripepi Smith also conducted a full website audit, delivering a detailed page-by-page checklist outlining usability, accessibility and storytelling improvements. Beran noted one significant issue is that the current website directs visitors to Palm Springs’ Facebook page rather than VillageFest’s own social media channels.

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