With the recent bad weather in mind it’s sensible to mention how to deal with marquees in strong winds:
- (obviously) make sure the marquee is well anchored down. Tie down kits are good, additional stakes over groundbars and/or fixing down to buildings even better.
- The side of a marquee is more wind resistant than an end. Wind hitting the end of a marquee is blowing against a flat surface, when it hits the side there is the slope of the roof allowing the wind to pass over the top.
- A marquee is more wind-resistant with the sides on rather than off. For some reason many people believe taking sides off ‘allows the wind to pass through’. Many people are wrong. Taking the sides off of a marquee turns it in to a large umbrella, umbrellas are not good in strong winds. Leave the sides on and have a single access on a side not facing the wind.
- Marquees are not built to survive hurricane strength winds, even the far larger structures are generally only rated to 50mph/80kmh. There are (very very rare) occasions when the marquee has to come down or shouldn’t be erected to start with. If you don’t have time to take the whole marquee down then just take all of the covers (including the roof!) off and just leave the framework (still anchored down).
Thanks for reading
Spencer