Victory In The Valley is a local Christian music festival dedicated to making change in the New Bethlehem community. I was invited to assist with web design and social media marketing solutions.
Attempt 1: Hugo static site
Initially, I built a website using the Hugo static site generator. The site served its purpose quickly, but the theme I chose was too restrictive for the page flow the organization needed as it grew.
Key takeaways: This project taught me a lot about static site generators and the Go programming language — even though I didn’t end up mastering Go.
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old site- (click to expand)
](/images/2020/12/brave_tJP7IU6nQH.jpg)
Link: https://old.victoryinthevalley.live/
Attempt 2: WordPress rebuild
The local technology firm I worked for used WordPress to build stunning websites. While WordPress has drawbacks — speed, security, and maintenance overhead — I realized that design flexibility and new features would be much easier to implement there.
Using only free and open source resources, I designed and implemented a new WordPress site for Victory In The Valley. The site was still a work in progress when it launched, but it was public and ready for the community to use.
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new site- (click to expand)
](/images/2020/12/brave_beyuXTpRvl.jpg)
Link: https://victoryinthevalley.live/
Key takeaways: I learned the full process of building a WordPress site from installation to deployment. I enjoy WordPress for volunteer projects like this, but the Hugo iteration helped me understand when a static approach is — and isn’t — the right fit.
Results
The WordPress rebuild gave the festival a platform they could extend without fighting theme constraints. That trade-off — a bit more operational overhead for much more design freedom — was the right call for a growing community event.
