Stretch Marquee Hire in England

Kalahari Events provide amazing, versatile stretch tents for events all over the UK and they are ideal for weddings, corporate, festivals and private parties and they always make a visual impact. Here they give some useful advice on what to ask a prospective supplier.

What do you need to know from an organiser in order to provide a comprehensive quote?

For us to provide a comprehensive quote, we ideally need the event date and when you would like the tent set up, a brief explanation of what type of event it is, the estimated number of guests and potential location, whether you require flooring and lighting, whether the tent is to go on grass or hard surface. From this, we can provide you with an accurate breakdown of the options that are going to best suit your needs.

What advice would you give to a customer looking to hire a provider in your area of work?

Ask the provider about their experience and their equipment- stretch tents look great and sell themselves but we tend to keep our tents for a maximum of 2 seasons to keep them looking great. Stretch tents can be as good as any style of marquee in dire weather conditions but if not rigged properly they can be unstable- always check if they know their tents wind ratings and have a contingency plan.

Please tell us a little bit about how and why you started the business.

Kalahari Tents came about after a career break where I got into doing some events work during the Winter Olympics in Canada whilst working as a snowboard instructor. On returning to the UK I took a labouring job with a large marquee hire firm in back in the and whilst out on-site at a festival laid my eyes on my first stretch tent and thought there and then “I’m going to get me some of those!”
After a few seasons of building marquees and working as an events crew chief in London, I thought I’d give setting my own hire company up a go and brought a few stretch tents.
6 years on think that I can safely say we provide some of the best value stretch tents on the market. We may be small but this helps us focus our efforts on every individual job and enable us to provide fantastic customer service and a quality product.

Please tell us about a booking you've had through Add to Event, how did it go? Would you recommend us to others?

We only signed up around 4 months ago but we’ve already picked up quite a few bookings and already had some great feedback.
My favourite event so far was a tent we built in Clapham, London. It was only small but pretty challenging as I had to part suspend it in a courtyard between 3 walls then down the garden. It worked brilliantly and by the time we had put the lights, it looked like a very chic night with up lighters in the flower beds and fire pits outside.
The client and their guests absolutely loved it- their neighbours not so much by all accounts! Although I’ve already done several referrals in the area.