Marquees, anchoring and the wind question
Published
A marquee is not a room you hire. It is a temporary building you commission, and on this coast the engineering matters more than the fabric.
Couples reach for a marquee for one of two reasons: they have a beautiful piece of land and no building on it, or they believe it will be cheaper than a venue. The first reason is excellent. The second is almost always wrong.
The tent is the small part of the cost
Hiring the structure is straightforward. Everything that makes it usable is where the money goes, and none of it is optional:
- Flooring. Grass becomes mud, and mud ends receptions. Subfloor and decking are a substantial line and are required whenever rain is plausible.
- Lighting, inside and on every path guests will walk in the dark.
- Power, meaning a generator, its fuel and its cabling — and a generator sited far enough away not to be heard. See load shedding, generators and water.
- Heating or cooling. Inland evenings get considerably colder than the afternoon suggests, and a marquee in the sun is an oven.
- Lavatories, and the water they consume. Water supply, storage and restrictions covers what an empty site does not have.
- A kitchen, or space for a mobile one. Catering at remote and unserviced sites sets out what that involves.
- Tables, chairs, linen, glass, crockery, cutlery, bins, and the vehicle movements to bring them all.
- Access. A lorry has to reach the position, and on soft ground after rain it may not.
Added together, a field frequently costs more than a venue with walls and a kitchen. Choose a marquee because you want that piece of land, not to save money.
Wind is the design constraint, not the weather forecast
On this coast, wind determines whether a marquee is viable at all. It is worth understanding how the structures differ, because it changes the conversation with a supplier.
Pole marquees rely on guy ropes and stakes running well outside the footprint. They need a large anchoring area and firm ground to take the stakes.
Frame marquees are self-supporting aluminium structures that can be ballasted rather than staked, which makes them the usual choice on hard standing, near buildings, or where the ground cannot be pierced.
Stretch tents are fabric under tension. They handle wind well in the right hands because they can be pitched low and tight, and badly in the wrong hands. They also give less shelter from driven rain.
Whichever you choose, the questions are the same three: how is it anchored, what wind speed is it rated to, and at what point do you take it down?
A competent supplier answers all three without hesitating and will tell you plainly that above a certain wind they will not erect it, or will strike it. That is the answer you want. A supplier who says it will be fine has told you they have not thought about it, and an unanchored marquee in a gust is a genuine danger to the people underneath it.
The consequences for everything inside the marquee — sound, flame, paper, structures — are set out in wind, and what it quietly rules out.
Ground conditions decide the anchoring
What lies under the grass determines what is possible. Rock close to the surface prevents staking. Sand holds stakes poorly and needs specialised anchors or heavy ballast. Waterlogged ground holds nothing and produces mud.
Ask the supplier to visit the actual position rather than quote from a photograph. Ask what happens if it rains for two days beforehand. Ask where services run, because driving a stake through an irrigation line or a cable is a memorable way to lose a water supply.
On a beach the answer is frequently that nothing may be erected at all, for reasons of bylaw as much as physics — see beach ceremonies and municipal permission.
Sides, and the decision you make on the day
Order sidewalls even if you intend an open marquee. They cost little relative to the whole and they are the only thing standing between your guests and driven rain arriving horizontally.
Then agree, in advance, who decides to put them up and by when. That decision has to be made hours before anyone can see the weather that will justify it, and if nobody owns it, it is made too late.
Permission and insurance
A large temporary structure may require permission — from the landowner certainly, and depending on where it stands and how long it is up, possibly from the municipality. Ask the supplier what they normally require, because they will have done it before in that area.
Confirm the supplier's public liability cover and ask whether your own arrangements need to extend to the structure. Insurance and liability sets out the questions.
Noise travels further than you think
An open-sided marquee in the countryside at night broadcasts in every direction. Neighbours, farm workers who start early and, at a reserve, wildlife are all affected, and there is usually a hard end time. Establish it before you book a band, not afterwards.
The honest summary
A marquee is the right answer when the location is the point and there is no building on it. It is the wrong answer when the objective is to spend less. Get a supplier to walk the ground, get the three anchoring questions answered, price the flooring and the generator before you commit, and take the twenty questions to the landowner as well as the marquee company.