Fall festival season is one of the busiest times of the year for schools, churches, neighborhoods, businesses and communities across North Texas. Cooler weather, football season, Halloween events and community celebrations all make fall a great time to bring people together.
And when you are planning an outdoor festival, one of the first things you need to think about is simple:
Where is everyone going to gather?
That is where tents come in.
Whether you are creating a shaded seating area, covering food service, setting up vendor booths or building a central gathering space, tents can completely change the way your festival looks and functions.
At Rental Stop, We’ve Got You covered.
Start With the Space
Before you choose a tent, start by looking at your event space.
How many guests are you expecting? Will the festival be on grass, pavement or a combination of both? Are you planning one large gathering area or several smaller spaces throughout the event?
A school carnival may need separate tents for registration, food and activities. A church festival might need one larger tent filled with tables and chairs. A street festival may use multiple tents for vendors, concessions, entertainment and guest seating.
There is no one-size-fits-all festival setup.
The right tent depends on what you are trying to create underneath it.
More Than Just a Place to Sit
When people think about event tents, they often picture rows of tables and chairs. That is certainly one way to use them, but tents can do much more at a festival.
Create a food and dining area where guests can sit down with their hamburgers, hot dogs or festival treats.
Set up a registration or ticket tent near the entrance so guests immediately know where to go.
Give your volunteers a check-in or information station where supplies and paperwork can stay organized.
Use tents for vendor booths, craft areas, games, raffles or silent auctions.
You can even create a central gathering area where families can take a break between activities.
Instead of thinking of a tent as one big piece of equipment, think of it as the starting point for building different spaces throughout your festival.
Small Tents, Big Uses
Not every part of a festival needs a huge tent. A 20′ x 20′ tent provides 400 square feet of covered space and can be a great option for smaller festival areas.
Think about using one for:
- Registration or ticket sales
- Volunteer check-in
- Information stations
- Food or concession areas
- Smaller seating areas
- Activity stations
- Raffles or silent auctions
Need a little more room? A 20′ x 40′ tent doubles that covered space and can work well for dining areas, larger food stations, activities or a group of tables and chairs.
Several smaller tents can also be placed throughout a festival instead of putting everything underneath one large tent.
That can help create natural zones and keep guests moving through the event.
Step Up to a Larger Gathering Area
As your guest count grows, your tent can grow with it.
A 30′ x 30′ tent provides 900 square feet of covered space and can create a great central gathering area for a festival.
Move up to a 30′ x 40′ or 30′ x 50′ tent, and you have even more room for tables, chairs, food service or larger groups.
These sizes can work well when you want one main location where guests can sit down, eat, visit and take a break from the rest of the activities.
For a school or church festival, a larger tent might become the main dining area while smaller tents are used around the property for games, concessions and registration.
It is all about creating the setup that works best for your event.
Going Really Big?
Some festivals need much more than a few tables and chairs.
Large corporate events, community festivals, fundraisers and major gatherings may need a tent that becomes the centerpiece of the entire event.
Rental Stop offers 40-foot and 60-foot-wide tent options, with many different configurations.
These larger tents can give you room for:
- Large guest seating areas
- Dining
- Staging
- Presentations
- Entertainment
- Food service
- Multiple activities
- Large community gatherings
When your festival starts getting bigger, the layout becomes even more important. You have to think about how guests will enter, where tables and chairs will go, where food will be served and how much open space you want to keep available.
That is where planning the tent and the items underneath it together really matters.
Mix and Match Your Tent Sizes and Shapes
One of our favorite ways to plan a festival is not necessarily choosing one tent. It is choosing the right tents for the right spaces. For example, your festival could have:
- A larger tent for guest seating and dining.
- A 20′ x 20′ for registration.
- Another tent for concessions.
- A covered area for volunteers.
- A separate tent for an activity or game.
- And another area for vendors.
Using different tent shapes and sizes helps turn an open field, parking lot or large outdoor area into an organized event space.
Instead of guests wondering where to go, the tents naturally help guide them from one part of the festival to another.
What Size Tent Do You Need?
Most customers do not know the answer to that question when they first start planning. And that is okay. Tent size depends on much more than just guest count. We also need to think about what is going underneath the tent.
- Will everyone be seated?
- Are you using round or banquet tables?
- Do you need room for food service?
- Will there be a stage?
- Do you want open areas where people can stand and visit?
- Are you trying to cover one large area or several smaller spaces?
The same number of guests can require very different tent sizes depending on how the event is set up. That is why talking through your entire festival plan can help us point you in the right direction.
Do Not Forget What Goes Under the Tent
Choosing the tent is only the beginning. Once you know what each tent will be used for, start thinking about everything that needs to go underneath it.
For dining and gathering areas, you may need tables, chairs and linens.
For concessions, you might add popcorn machines, cotton candy machines, sno cone machines, grills or griddles.
A vendor area may require additional tables and chairs.
If the tent will be used after dark, you may need to plan for lighting and power.
And if your festival includes a performance area, you may also be thinking about staging and sound equipment nearby.
Building the tent first helps you visualize the rest of the setup.
Reserve Your Fall Festival Tents Early
Fall weekends fill up quickly. Schools, churches, neighborhoods, businesses and community organizations are often planning festivals during the same few months, and popular event equipment can go fast. Once your date and location are confirmed, it is a good idea to start planning your tent needs.
Think about how many people you expect, how you want to use the space and what equipment will be underneath each tent. You do not have to have every detail figured out before you call.
At Rental Stop, we can help you think through your setup and determine what makes sense for your event. From tents and tables to concessions, games, power and more, we have the equipment to help bring your fall festival together.
We’ve Got You Covered
A great fall festival starts with good planning, and sometimes it starts with simply making sure everyone has a place to gather.
Whether you need one tent or several areas throughout your event, Rental Stop can help you build a setup that works for your space, your crowd and your plans.
Planning a fall festival? Start with the tents. Rental Stop has you covered.
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