In the 20+ years we’ve been supplying marquees in Yorkshire & Lincolnshire we’ve seen them used in a myriad of ways, part of the appeal to hiring a marquee comes down to their versatility and how they’re tailored for each event, making every hire we do completely unique.
You may not be aware of what a marquee can be hired for, and we’ve hand-picked the 5 styles of events we typically see a marquee used.
Corporate Events
This can always be surprising, but every year a huge range of businesses come to us because they want a slick, professional, branded marquee either for an on-site business event or because they’re appearing at one of the many shows around the area.
Front-of-house presentation is key to aligning the marquee with your business, and this is where they thrive, giving your business the edge it needs to wow either staff or customers and differentiate it from everybody else. Close collaboration is crucial to understanding the objective of the event so you get a perfectly sized marquee with ample space to deliver a successful event.
Below is an example of Rix at the Driffield Show, this U-shaped design created the ideal space for them to showcase the brand and make a statement at the show so they could seamlessly integrate all their own-branded equipment with the marquee.
You can discover more about our corporate events here.
Weddings
The synonymous association of marquees with weddings is an obvious one that we could never miss out on this list. But in our experience, not all marquees are created equally and for weddings, they need every fine detail to be perfected so we can bring to life what the happy couple have visualised.
Once again, the versatility of marquees shines through, how you accessorise and ‘dress’ a marquee ultimately aligns it with the wedding event dreams are made of. From exquisite linings to extravagant chandeliers, rustic furniture to quaint chairs, the full complimentary package is what levels up a marquee to a fairytale.
Each location for a wedding is unique and sometimes challenging, balancing the guest size with the physical proportions of where the marquee is going takes experience to strike the fine balance that appeases both elements and close collaboration ensures the ideal marquee size slots seamlessly into the location.
One fine example is the Saunby Wedding situated at the stunning Burton Constable Hall close to the East Yorkshire coast. This picture-perfect location required keen communication with the landowners so we could assemble this mammoth marquee which has a simple, rustic and classic feel to it, the mood lighting looked dreamy in the evening making it a venue that dreams are made of.
You can discover more about our wedding events here.
Storage
Moving in a totally different direction, we are regularly approached by businesses that are space-restricted and quickly need to scale storage without relocating to a completely new location. For some businesses, their seasonal nature means they only need temporary storage for several months, or a temporary change has forced them to seek additional space. Covid-19 was a perfect example of this, many businesses needed more space for makeshift canteens and workspaces.
A temporary warehouse solution is more than a marquee, in the same way a marquee is much more than a gazebo (see difference here), temporary warehouses are semi-permanent structures that have steel walls and can achieve greater heights than standard marquees, making them ideal for racking or as loading bays for logistics companies. Many retail businesses find them useful over peak sales periods to temporarily store excess stock required to meet the temporary influx in demand.
This novel use below shows a temporary storage unit housing two helicopters which was a unique purpose but worked effectively.
You can discover more about our temporary warehouses here.
Festivals & Shows
As far as events go, these are close to as big as it gets. Festivals and shows take a massive organisational undertaking. At most of them, you’re likely to see a few marquees around if not everywhere, they’re so practical for these events.
The main requirement for festival and shows is usually ‘do you have enough tents to cover the event’. These events generally need A LOT of marquees from the compact to the colossal, in our experience, these serve a more practical purpose to simply offer shelter from the unpredictable British summer but generally don’t require the same accessorising that a wedding would.
Marquees at festivals are used for stages, food halls, bars, pop-up shops, merch stands just to name a few, thankfully, we have a massive and diverse stock of marquees that caters to festivals and shows of all shapes and sizes. Yorkshire & Lincolnshire are home to a variety of wonderful shows from Humber Street Sesh to a plethora of agriculture shows that we support every year.
You can discover more about our festivals & shows here.
Parties & Birthdays
Last on the list and not to be overlooked, we can’t forget a good old party for a marquee. Usually a big Birthday is a fantastic opportunity to do a themed party and deck the marquee out in a custom theme, as we know at this stage, you can personalise a marquee nearly limitlessly and parties stretch the lengths of this.
The beauty of your own venue is that everyone in the same contained event is familiar and the atmosphere is generally more relaxed and tailored, making it for an incredibly fun event! We love parties as they’re an opportunity to get creative with the tents and be imaginative, like this fine example of a Cuban themed party.
You can discover more about our birthdays & parties here.
These top 5 only scratch the surface of what you can hire a marquee for, got a novel way you want to hire a marquee for? Reach out and tell us about it, we love to be surprised and thrive in new, different ways to see our marquees get used, call us on 01482 348700 or contact us here.
