Website and CMS overhaul built for peak traffic, lower transfer costs, and faster publishing

Objective

A platform that had reached its limits

The old site ran on Nuxt 2 and had reached its limits. We saw server-side errors on page load and caching that was not set up correctly. That combination made the platform risky, especially at moments with sudden demand.

The goal of the rebuild was clear and practical: faster page loads and stronger Core Web Vitals, lower bandwidth and data transfer costs during peak moments, and content management in DatoCMS so updates do not require developer help.

Execution

Incremental Static Regeneration (ISR) with pre-generation

We rebuilt the site in Next.js using ISR with pre-generation. The goal was a fast first load, with cache invalidation handled in the background on request. This keeps pages responsive for users while still letting content updates roll out without heavy rebuild cycles.

A tidier page structure

We improved the content structure so the editorial team can move faster without breaking layouts. Two concrete upgrades mattered most: tidier page structure with clearer, more consistent page composition so content remains on-brand and easier to maintain, and better media handling—especially for the Lookbook workflow, where the site needs to support large volumes of imagery and video.

Live previews for confident publishing

We set up live previews so editors can preview the exact page they are editing in DatoCMS. When they save, the preview updates automatically. This makes QA part of the normal workflow, not a separate step.

Migration tooling: custom export and importer

To avoid manual rebuilding of content, we created a custom export and importer to migrate everything from the old DatoCMS setup to the new one, including roughly 7 GB of media. We migrated in smaller batches, kept the old site live during the process, and sanity checked the results manually to catch issues early.

Result

From end-of-life to peak-ready in 4 weeks

In 4 weeks, Milkshake Festival moved from an end-of-life Nuxt 2 setup to a Next.js platform designed for peak moments: faster first loads, fewer failure points on page load, and a caching strategy that reduces unnecessary data transfer during spikes. On the operations side, the team can now publish with confidence thanks to live previews and a cleaner DatoCMS structure.