Outdoor venues like SaddleSpan tents are fantastic for family-orientated events, providing easy access to the great outdoors, lots of shelter, whilst also having plenty of space for kids to run around and have a great time.
However, if you’re planning a family event, one where a lot of children of all ages will be attending, you’ll need to take steps to make the occasion child-proof.
Is your outdoor venue kitted out for kids?
Here are a few handy tips to help organisers child-proof their event tent and make it perfect for families:
– Do a risk assessment before and after setting up your venue. Health and safety risk assessments are essential when holding any event, and especially for family events. Carry out a detailed assessment of the site when the event tents go up, and then again once you’ve furnished and decorated your venues. Things may change a lot between these two stages, so carrying out the assessment again is crucial. Don’t forget to look for tripping risks (i.e. loose wires and uneven floors), injury risks like furniture with sharp edges and anything else that could otherwise injure or harm your guests.
Fire risk assessments are also important (and a legal requirement!), so don’t forget about fire exits and escape routes, smoke detectors, fire alarms and maximum venue capacities.
– Add extra facilities – you’ll need them! When it comes to family events, the toilets are likely to be the most popular place in your venue. With lots of children and lots of babies needing changing, you’ll need lots of toilets. If in doubt, go for more than you think you need!
– Set up lots of visible meeting points. If you have a very large marquee or lots of event tents set up on the same site, there’s a good chance that the occasional child is going to get lost. You need lots of very visible meeting points, so that parents and children know exactly where to go if they get separated. Then, reuniting them can be as simple as calling their names over the PA system and pointing everyone to the right meeting point.
-Recruit some helpers. With lots of families in one place, there are likely to be lots of crises and mini dramas to deal with on the day. You can make things easier on parents and help smooth over any problems by recruiting plenty of extra help, preferably people who are good with kids, used to big events and calm in a crisis!
– Set up a first aid station. Hopefully you’ll get nothing worse than a grazed knee or the odd bump and bruise, but having at least once trained nurse and plenty of first aid supplies is still a very good idea at family events. Make your first aid station visible and easy to find, and make sure everyone knows about it.
