Website Unavailable / 503 Errors During High Traffic

Occasionally during major on-sales or high demand launches, the website may temporarily become unavailable or show errors such as:

• 503 Service Unavailable
• 502 Bad Gateway
• General NGINX/server unavailable messages

In almost all cases, this is caused by a very large number of users hitting the website simultaneously.

Why This Happens

LEAP sites are heavily cached and optimised for performance, however extremely high traffic spikes can still temporarily overload:

• The web server
• PHP workers
• Backend requests
• Upstream services

This is most common during:

• Membership launches
• Finals ticket releases
• Major announcements
• Large EDM sends
• Simultaneous social media campaigns

A typical pattern is:

1. An EDM sends to tens of thousands of users instantly
2. Social posts go live at the same moment
3. Thousands of users hit the Packages page within seconds
4. The server temporarily struggles under the spike

Good News: It Usually Resolves Quickly

In most cases:

• The issue is temporary
• The website recovers automatically within a few minutes
• No content or data is lost

As traffic settles, the platform returns to normal operation.

Best Practice: Spread Traffic Over Time

The best way to avoid overload is to distribute traffic gradually rather than sending everyone at once.

Email Campaign Recommendations

Most email platforms allow you to stagger or throttle sends.

Instead of:

• Sending 50,000 emails instantly

Prefer:

• Sending over 30–60 minutes

This dramatically reduces traffic spikes while having almost no impact on campaign performance.

Recommended Features

Look for features such as:

• Send throttling
• Batch sending
• Smart sending
• Delivery scheduling

Platforms That Support This

• Mailchimp
• Campaign Monitor
• Klaviyo
• HubSpot
• Salesforce Marketing Cloud

Social Media Recommendations

Avoid posting across every platform at the exact same minute.

Instead:

• Stagger posts over an hour
• Offset Instagram, Facebook, X, LinkedIn, etc.
• Delay push notifications slightly after EDMs

Example Rollout

This creates a much smoother traffic curve.

Additional Recommendations

Use Direct Links

Where possible, link users directly to:

• Specific package pages
• Checkout flows
• Priority landing pages

Rather than sending all traffic to the homepage.

Avoid Simultaneous Staff Testing

During launches:

• Avoid many staff members refreshing pages repeatedly
• Avoid large internal QA sessions at launch time

Launch Slightly Earlier Internally

If possible:

• Publish content 5–10 minutes before campaigns begin
• Confirm pages are cached and loading correctly

Summary

Temporary outages during major launches are almost always caused by sudden traffic spikes.

The best prevention strategy is:

• Spread email sends over time
• Stagger social posts
• Avoid all channels launching simultaneously

This greatly improves platform stability and creates a smoother experience for fans and members.