Just supposing I was holding some kind of event with 500 people attending and needed to provide cover for a beer area, a food area and a trade stand/general wandering around area.

Would you recommend 1 huge marquee for everything, seperate marquess for the food, beer and trade area or cominbed food and beer with a seperate trade area?

W have a 65 acre site so space isn’t too much of an issue althoug because it is a charity event we would like to keep the costs down.

I reckon a combined food and beer with seperate trade but would appreciate you views based on other events you have been to.

Hi, I used to work for a marquee company as an “erector” – honestly! We used the modern, aluminium, clearspan marquees, not the traditional wood and canvas types.

For 500 people, you’d most likely need to have a 15×30-50m marquee for food and beer. I was at the Cambridge beer festival last year and they had a 15x70m marquee and it probably had around 500 people in it.

If you want a chat with someone with A LOT of experience, speak to Grevil at County Marquees – 07957 836029. Tell him you spoke to Colin.

Take care

Cheers Colin, where is he based?

I think a few smaller marquess/tents would be better than 1 big one.

ask marquee mark

Won’t most of the stall holders have their own E-Zee ups anyway?

Most will but I am still thinking that the trade marquee will give people somewhere to shelter from the sun while they enjoy the music, beer etc

Have a look at JMCarter, maybe a bit far north in Basingstoke/Reading but they do have a Marquee sizing guide that could be of some use.

As the saying goes….I saw this and thought of you