All What’s, Which’s, Where’s and When’s Answered About Event Tents

Event tents provide the perfect setting for fun, laid back and easy going events. Be it weddings, business affairs or just a high school reunion beer party, event tents provide a lot of comfort to all attendees and ensure that your special occasion goes off without a glitch. Even with so much versatility, there always is an air of uncertainty surrounding tents. There are way too many when’s, what’s, what if’s, and where’s floating around the web and here I will try to answer most of them.

When to use Tents:

While an outdoor wedding is a default setting that comes to our mind when we think of an event gazebos, it is not the occasion that could use a heavy duty pop up gazebo. Event tents can be best put to use for the following activities also:

1. Corporate Events: Business events are a must for every enterprise as a part of their corporate social responsibilities. These also provide platforms for training drives. Party Marquees can be used as efficient shortstops or check-ins where the company’s successes are listed out on the pedestal of main event halls indoors. They also provide fantastic branding opportunities for you to showcase your brand to people coming from outside your business fraternity.

2. Farmers Markets: Event tents provide respite for your product and your visitors alike from outside elements such as sun, rain and humidity. Also, bright and beautiful canvases can be employed to lure visitors.

3. Birthday Parties and special occasions: Be it birthday parties, bar mitzvahs or sweet 16’s, a party marquee can create your intimate ambience to savour your special moments with your loved ones.

4. Screening Parties: Everyone on the planet is serious about a team from one sport or another, and that has contributed significantly to the screening or tailgating culture. Be it a grand finale or a crunch game against your arch rivals, heavy duty pop up gazeboes provide the perfect setting for you to embrace the game and its atmosphere with fellow fans as if you were in the stadium.

 With that sorted, now we’ll take a look at the different types of event tents available.

The basic idea is that any shed that you can conduct an event under is an event tent and they are further divided into two classes, tents and canopies. Now tents and canopies are subdivided into four categories:

1. Pop Up and Instant Canopies:These party marquees are designed for convenience. As the name suggests, Pop up, and Instant Canopies can be set up or taken down within a couple of minutes without the use of any tools. Some variants also come with a storage bag that aids in transportation. Without any poles in the centre, these also facilitate hassle-free movements of the guests.

2. Pole Tents:No brownie points for guessing that pole tents use poles to support their weight. Generally, the poles are located on the periphery and in the centre of the entire structure to shoulder the tension created by stakes and other weigh downs. Pole tents are light, comfortable, cost-effective and can cover a large area.

3. Frame Tents:Frame tents employ tubular metal structure instead of depending on tension from the stakes to support their canopies. This allows them to withstand the weight of canopies without having a centre pole. Frame tents are spacious and allow for free movements of the guests, and hence most wedding gazebo tents are of this kind. These can be deployed as semi-permanent structures indoors or adjacent to buildings.

4. Tension Tents:Tension tents are relatively similar to the traditional pole tents: both of them deploy poles in the centre and the periphery, rely on the tension from tie-downs to stay erect and are equally easy to transport and install. However, the peaks of tension tents are much taller than those of their pole counterparts, and thus they are also called “high peak” tents. These are employed mostly in business, and formal events due to their scope of branding as a large area of canopies are available for stuff to be printed on them.

With so many types and kinds, most customers get overwhelmed in their pursuit for the right event tent. Be it wedding marquees, party marquees or even heavy duty pop up gazebos, keep the following factors in mind before making opting for your canopy.

1. Size:Tents, just like humans, are not made equal. Take, for instance, a pop-up gazebo could be the perfect intimate setting to propose to your loved one but too small or crowded for the wedding that is to follow. While instant gazebos are ideal for smaller functions, bigger events like marriages, galas, farmer markets etc. require bigger marquees. The size of your gazebo will depend heavily on the number of people who will attend your event, seating and table layout, accessories such as heating and cooling units, lighting, bar counters, flooring, etc.

2. Material: At the very core, Gazebos are made up of two elements: the frame rods and canopy roofs.

 Irrespective of your choice of the gazebo, you only have two frame materials to choose from: Aluminium and Steel. Steel frames are sturdier and heavier as compared to their Aluminium counterparts, making them less convenient to transport. Steel frames are coated superficially with an anti-rust powder which peels off after a while, making it susceptible to rusting agents. Aluminium, on the other hand, forms Aluminium Oxide (Al2O3) on contact with oxygen to form an anti-rust layer on top to prevent rusting.

The duopoly continues when it comes to the canopies as well. Two major substances used in canopies are polyester and vinyl-coated polyester. Cheaper or low-grade marquees are made of polyester while professional-grade marquees come with vinyl coated with polyester (PVC). PVC-coated polyester tents are low-maintenance, lightweight and offer better protection against UV-rays and rain. Most polyester tents are flame-resistant, an important feature that you should always keep in mind.

3. Accessories: After you’ve picked up a tent of your choice, it comes down to moulding it in accordance to your needs. Accessories that come up with these event marquees go to great lengths in helping you achieve that. Most commonly seen accessories are:

1. Sidewalls: Sidewalls allow you to enclose part or all of your canopy. These are perfect for occasions like weddings as they impart a more formal exterior to the setting. These also provide added weather protection.

1. Stakes and Anchors: Stakes are the most common stabilizers that come with your party tent. They usually come in sets and are user-friendly on most occasions. Anchors, on the other hand, are preferred in areas that require more stabilization due to high wind speeds. However, both of them are not fit to be employed on beaches; Weight bags are used instead.

1. Storage bags: Most canopies come with storage bags and if unfortunately, yours does not consider investing in one as storage bags are useful in both transportation and protection of the marquee.

 I guess with so much information at your disposal, having to choose an event marquee must be a less daunting task as compared to when you started reading. Irrespective of the use, we understand that purchasing a party marquee is a hefty investment and thus it in your best interest to be informed before making one.

Happy Tenting!