Renting Traditional Marquees
Pole marquees hark back to traditional village fetes and are a pretty alternative to modern style tents, but they have some specific requirements
Grass is always greener
The guy ropes of traditional pole marquees need to be secured by 1m-long metal stakes. Don't worry: they're only as thick as your thumb, so they won't damage your lawn.
However, they mean the marquee can't be erected on any hard surface, such as tarmac, flagstones or concrete. Instead, they should be on grass, and on ground that is as flat as possible.
They also mean that we have to be careful of underground pipes, so they aren't always good to put up very close to a house.
You'll get added Brownie points for offering us a cup of tea or a cold drink after we've hammered them all in!
Feel the power
Unless told otherwise, we'll assume the marquee is going to be within 50m of a mains socket and that we're only responsible for the festoon lighting inside it. We automatically add a heavy duty 50m extension lead to your quote to cover those power needs.
You may be able to power one or two small items, such as MP3 players, from that lead, but this doesn't include bands, DJs, catering equipment, fridge trailers, luxury toilet trailers etc. as their power needs will be more than it can handle. If you need more leads for other suppliers or items, please let us know and we may have enough cabling to supply them all, but this needs to be discussed as soon as possible.
If there's no mains socket within 50m you'll need a generator. We can source one and handle all the power management for you, but if you want to find one yourself, do please ask the supplier about distribution boards, extra leads and fuel. Power set up and management will then be you or your supplier's responsibility. You'll need to liaise with everyone else to find out what types of sockets and leads we all need, and so what size generator will be big enough.
Generators will bump up the price, but please don't try to save money by using a series of extension leads plugged into each other as these can be dangerous and may short the fuses.
Please ask us for more information if you are unsure.
Timing is everything
Putting up a marquee is a long process, typically a full day for the tent, coir matting and lighting. Any additional furniture, stages, or dancefloors will add on top of that.
If you need a lot of time to decorate before the event, make sure to let us know so we can arrange enough time to erect the marquee.
If your event is on Saturday, for example, we can put up the marquee on Thursday, allowing you all Friday to arrange place settings and any decorations.
Credit: Laura Eddolls