Setting up 40 stretch tents at BOOM Festival 2018
This year Dimensions Tents & Structures had the opportunity to set up the legendary Boom Festival 2018 in Idanha-a-Nova, Portugal.
Once we had mapped out a clear and thorough installation plan with the production team in Portugal we were given the green light to take on this huge undertaking with our select team of rigging specialists.
Planning
Early planning stages included arranging Schengen Visas for seven crew members, freight for the tents from Cape Town to Lisbon and then transit from port to the venue.
This can be a stressful part of the process as unforeseen delays may happen due to events out of our control such as bad weather on the ocean or having one’s shipment selected for inspection by customs, which happened to us on this occasion.  As one would expect, a customs inspection of that many tents takes time as each one needs to be rolled out and checked to ensure no contraband is being smuggled inside, which of course there wasn’t, but these types of delays need to be factored into a solid plan, which includes being sure to give the team enough time to complete the job.
Installation and setup
Boom Festival hosted a reported 42,000 people this year.
The completed job would see us set up over 10,000 square metres of Bedouin stretch tent.
There we three very technical setups including a 600 square metre tent setup 15 metres off the ground, two stage coverings, (Main stage, and Sacred Fire stage), the Mova art gallery, a 3,200 square metre shaded food court, four bar structures, info points, shaded spaces for workshops and general shaded areas around the venue.
In total, our crew setup 40 tents on time and de-rigged the entire event after the festival.
The job…
On arrival at the Boom Festival, our home for the next month and a half would be a comfortable camp site and home base, set up, of course by ourselves.
The following day we met with the festival organizers and finalised locations, setup styles, and locked down a time line for completing the setup. (We had three weeks to set up all tents, cover pegs, do necessary repairs, and maintain structures for the duration of the event and beyond.
With temperatures in the range of 35 – 47 degrees the work conditions were tough, and to make things tougher we had to hammer in about 850-900m of tent pegs into a super hard lake bed.
But this did not seem to faze the team, and we powered on through, managing all hurdles that came our way.
We established a full maintenance schedule during the event which ran for seven days.
The team covered the entire event twice a day to inspect all structures and do any necessary maintenance which was minimal as the tents were set up to withstand the strong winds that we experience back home in Cape Town, South Africa.
Packing Up
After the dust had settled and the 40,000+ people who attended the festival had filtered out and left the venue, we began the long task of washing, packing away and stock taking of all gear and accessories.
The location for Boom Festival is hot and dusty and as mentioned, the ground is hard. Cleaning the tents thoroughly after an installation is a critical part of the de-rigging process.
READ: Bedouin Stretch Tent care and maintenance tips
Overall, the Boom Festival project was an extremely smooth operation, from the early planning stages right through to the setup and breakdown with the only exception of having our goods stuck in customs for a few days more than we had anticipated.
Our client was happy, we’re happy and we are ready to do it again.
Boom Festival 2018 Setup photos