From the high speed and loud noise of Silverstone racing to the peace and tranquillity of the lake stage at Latitude, and from wild college balls to chilled music festivals, our summer season so far has taken us the length and breadth of the country.
2017 has been our busiest year to date at The Amazing Tents Company. This season has seen us setting up our SaddleSpan tents as far south as Cornwall for the Leopallooza Festival, and as far north as Edinburgh for the Assembly Festival.
In between we’ve stopped off at the Cornbury Festival in Oxfordshire and WOMAD in Wiltshire, visited Cambridge and Oxford Universities for their college balls, been to Blenheim Palace for the Countryfile Show Live, and popped over to Dublin for the Bloom Festival, coming back via Swansea University, where we set up for BBC Breakfast News.
And that’s not all. In fact we’ve calculated that from the start of the season until July we knocked in 2,500m of stakes, which is eight times the height of the Eiffel Tower and the total weight (15,000kgs) of a herd of 75 wildebeest.
We’ve put up enough spans to cover 50,000 people (twice the capacity of the O2 Arena) and moved equipment totalling 100 tonnes – the weight of more than 33 elephants. And we just keep going. By the end of the year we’ll probably have moved the equivalent weight of several zoos!
Simon Fookes, managing director, said: “It’s been a fantastic season so far, and up until recently we’ve had great weather along the way. The only shame for us is that we set up and leave before all the fun begins – and we come back at the end to see all the mess, chaos and aftermath!
“But equally, it’s great to watch the events on TV and online and see everyone having fun in our tents – enjoying music, or talks, or plays, or food. What we see is the wealth of arts, culture and interests across the UK that people enjoy — and it’s great to see these events thriving.”
On top of the big festivals and events, we have set up structures for large weddings, corporate events and private parties, and even put together a pop-up restaurant for Rick Stein and Tom Kerridge in the New Forest.
If you’re finding it hard to follow all this activity, we don’t blame you – even we can hardly believe we’ve been so busy ourselves! But you can see many of the tents we’ve mentioned here – and keep up to date with where we’re going and what we’re doing – on our Facebook and Twitter pages.