March/April 2022

ISSUE 49 | March/April 2022 | www.openairbusiness.com 

BUSINESS 

EVENT STRUCTURES 

FUNCTION VENUES 

› Bars & Catering 

› Outdoor Ceremonies 

GLAMPSITES 

› Compost Toilets 

› Booking Systems 

EVENTS 

› Seeing Red 

› Total Immersion 

CASE STUDIES: 

GREEN & AWAY • BIRDHOLME GLAMPING • SHREWSBURY FOOD FESTIVAL

ISSUE 38 | October/November 2020 | www.openairbusiness.com 

ISSUE 35 | March 2020 | www.openairbusiness.com 

BUSINESS 

BUSINESS 

ISSUE 39 | January 2021 | www.openairbusiness.com 

ISSUE 33 | January 2020 | www.openairbusiness.com 


BUSINESS 

/ / 

GLAMPSITES 

EVENTS 

> Legalities 

> Biophilic Design 

> Seasonal USPs 

> Bespoke Structures 

> Wedding Insights 

> Professional Services 

CASE STUDIES: HEATON HOUSE FARM • BROOK MEADOW • DOGFEST 


OAB Gathering 2020 – Don’t miss our very own conference this March! 

Alfresco Dining 

› Promoting Events 

› Market Research › Testing Times 

› Contingency Plans › Booking Channels › Necessary Change 

CASE STUDIES: 

SKIPBRIDGE COUNTRY WEDDINGS • TRECOMBE LAKES • WEEKEND AT THE ASYLUM 

> Events Report 

> Changing Diets 

> Marquees 

/ / 

GLAMPSITES 

CASE STUDIES: 


› Venue Searches 

› Customer Excellence 

EVENTS 

STAYCATION 

INVESTMENT 

GLAMPSITES 

› Tree Advice 

/ / 

› Glamping Show 

CASE STUDIES: 


› Changing Habits 

› Industry Taskforce 

CHILLI BARN • MAD DOGS & VINTAGE VANS • HEVER CRAFT AND DESIGN FAIR 

EVENTS 

› Event Glamping 

› Coping with Covid 

/ / 

GLAMPSITES 

› Casual Excellence 

› Planning Exemptions 

EVENTS 

THE ORCHARD AT MUNSLEY • HOLLY WATER HOLIDAYS • LANTERNS AT CHESTER ZOO 

Customer 

First 

› 2021 Predictions 

› Marketing Post-Covid 


› Delegation 

› Instagram 1 

› Start-up Venues › Small Space Design 

CASE STUDIES: 

HOUCHINS • THE PADDOCK RAMSBOTTOM • FRINGE BY THE SEA 

/ / 

GLAMPSITES 

BUSINESS 

EVENTS 

› Placemaking 

› Covid Insurance 

ISSUE 40 | February 2021 | www.openairbusiness.com 

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ISSUE 49 | March/April 2022 | www.openairbusiness.com 

WELCOME 

FOR ANYONE who missed it, outdoor marriages are now 

legal. Following the overwhelming response to a consultation 

conducted by the government on temporary measures 

brought in during the pandemic, couples can now conduct 

both their ceremony and reception in the open air. What great 

news for our industry – Charlotte Winship has more on how to 

maximise on the opportunity on pages 21-22. 

While the government has ‘given’ here, it has taken from 

the events industry with the banning of red diesel. Organisers 

are seeing their operating costs soar by the crackdown, billed 

as a carbon saving measure. EIF chair Steve Heap and Craft in Focus director Rob 

Chapman discuss the implications on pages 56-57. 

A fascinating factory visit to Glampsan’s workshop (pages 38-39) reveals the journey 

a humble plastic holding tank goes through in its manufacture, and leads nicely in 

to our feature on composting toilets! Thank you Practically Green for giving us your 

round up of the best toilets on the market and explaining the biological process 

behind composting. 

Following the low impact theme, our function venue case study Green & Away 

(pages 16-19) has sustainability at its core. A pop-up summertime venue run by 

volunteers, it is over 30 years old and welcomes people from all walks of life to party, 

learn and create. 

In a sector striving for the best guest experience and customer service, I would like 

to echo Caroline Cooper’s words in her piece on experiential learning (pages 26-27) – 

let’s keep our eyes open for best practice and exemplar service and seek to emulate it 

wherever we can. You never stop learning! 

Tally Rix 

Editor / Publisher 

PUBLISHERS 

Steve Rix - steve@openairbusiness.com 

Tally Rix - tally@openairbusiness.com 

EDITOR 

Tally Rix - tally@openairbusiness.com 

ADVERTISING SALES 

Marney Whyte - 01892 677743 

marney@openairbusiness.com 

David Hobden - 01892 677741 

david@openairbusiness.com 

ADMINISTRATOR 

Kirsty Farrow – 01892 677740 

kirsty@openairbusiness.com 

DESIGN 

James English - 

www.jamesenglishdesign.co.uk 

PUBLISHED BY 

Coffee Shop Media Ltd 

www.coffeeshopmedia.com 

Milroy House, Sayers Lane, 

Tenterden, TN30 6BW 

01580 848555 

Contents ISSUE 49 – MARCH/APRIL 2022 

UP FRONT 

4 News 

7 Product News 

10 Event Production 

Show Review 

12 Entrepreneur’s Chat 

– Helen McCombie 

Armstrong, Glamp 

and Tipple 


16 Green & Away 

– a low impact, 

pop-up venue in 

Worcestershire 

21 Go Outdoors – 

Charlotte Winship 

discusses the 

wedding law changes 

25 A Place to Interact 

– Andrew White on 

venues inspiring 

creative interaction 

26 Experiential 

Leaning – learning 

from experiences 

inside and outside of 

work 

28 Bars & Catering – 

products in action 

GLAMPSITES 

31 Birdholme Glamping 

– fully insulated safari 

lodges operating year 

round 

36 Booking Systems – 

how to compare and 

select the right one 

for you 

40 Compost Toilets 

– the best on the 

market with advice 

from Practically 

Green 

42 Bookings & 

Partnerships – 


46 Alfresco Dining – 


EVENTS 

48 Shrewsbury Food 

Festival – 200 food, 

drink and artisan 

craft stalls 

53 Total Immersion 

– the power of 

immersive events 

56 Seeing Red – the 

banning of red diesel 

for events 

59 Structures – 


62 Spotlight 

63 Classifieds 

65 Behind the Scenes 

Susie Reid Thomas, 

Twilight Trees 

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EVENT STRUCTURES 


› Bars & Catering 

› Outdoor Ceremonies 

GLAMPSITES 

› Compost Toilets 

› Booking Systems 

EVENTS 

› Seeing Red 

› Total Immersion 

CASE STUDIES: 

GREEN & AWAY • BIRDHOLME GLAMPING • SHREWSBURY FOOD FESTIVAL 

COVER PHOTO 

Pop-up summertime venue Green & Away in Worcestershire. 

www.greenandaway.org 

WWW.OPENAIRBUSINESS.COM 3 

BUSINESS

Outdoor Weddings 

Legalised 

Sustainable Events 

Around Morecambe Bay 

PEOPLE ACROSS Morecambe Bay are being 

invited to get involved in a project aimed at 

inspiring organisers to manage outdoor events in a 

sustainable way. 

Morecambe Bay Partnership is inviting 

the outdoor community across The Bay and 

surrounding areas to get involved with ‘Clear The 

Bay By Day’ project and contribute their expertise 

to inspire organisers to manage outdoor events in 

a sustainable way 

Many local event companies have been involved 

with the project so far, including T2 events, The 

Lap Windermere, Ourea Events, Greener Miles 

Running and other organisations like Dirtbags 

Climbing, Trees Not Tees, Green Small Business 

and Trash Free Trails. They are pooling their 

collective knowledge and expertise to build the 

resource. 

The partnership’s beach care assistant, Lauren 

Munro-Bennett, who is leading the project, said: 

“If you’re an organiser of a 5km fun run, a trail 

race, fell run, triathlon, swim event, cycle sportive, 

challenge event or a festival, we would love to hear 

from you!” 

The project is being funded by the European 

Outdoor Conservation Association (EOCA). Please 

contact Lauren at lauren@morecambebay.org.uk 

or call 07505 962212. 

T2 EVENTS 

OUTDOOR WEDDINGS at licensed 

venues in England and Wales have 

been legalised permanently. Having 

been introduced as a temporary 

measure during the pandemic, a 

government consultation found that 

96% of respondents backed making 

the change permanent, while 93% 

supported extending it to religious 

weddings. 

Ministers have now legalised 

outdoor civil weddings and 

partnerships indefinitely and reforms 

to religious ceremonies will be made 

in due course after the consultation 

found every major faith group 

supported the move. 

Couples can now have the whole 

ceremony outside in the venue’s 

grounds – providing them with 

greater flexibility and choice, as 

well as boosting the recovery of 

the wedding sector following the 

pandemic. 

Justice Minister Tom Pursglove MP 

said: “A wedding is one of the most 

important days in a person’s life and 

it is right that couples should have 

greater choice in how they celebrate 

their special occasion. 

“These reforms will allow 

couples to hold more personalised 

ceremonies and provide a welcome 

boost for the wedding sector.” 

Hospitality Carbon Calculator Launches 

FOLLOWING THE publication in November of the industry’s roadmap to net zero, the Zero Carbon 

Forum has launched the Hospitality and Brewing Carbon Calculator and Toolkit developed in 

collaboration with UKHospitality, BBPA, and powered by Sky. 

The toolkit enables hospitality operators and brewers to calculate their carbon footprint and 

identify achievable key actions to reduce emissions. To support the accuracy of footprint calculations 

and easy-to-use actions, operators can choose from the groupings of visitor attractions, hotels, 

restaurants, contract catering, pubs and breweries. 

Forum CEO and founder, Mark Chapman said: “We want to support operators to quickly identify 

the actions they can take. Accurately measuring and understanding your current carbon footprint is 

critical to starting a meaningful plan to cut carbon and costs. Our new calculator and toolkit shows 

operators how to take action on reducing emissions in their own business and supply chain rather 

than offsetting. It is based on the roadmap findings, learnings of all forum members and input from 

our carbon experts.” 

The toolkit and calculator can be accessed for brewers and pubs through the BBPA and through 

UKH for pubs, hotels, restaurants, QSR, nightclubs, contract catering and visitor attractions. It will also 

be available on Sky’s customer portal, MySkySports.com. Visit www.ukhospitality.org.uk/page/UKHCarboncalculator 

4 WWW.OPENAIRBUSINESS.COM

Dark Skies Generates £200,000 

THIS FEBRUARY’S Dark 

Skies Festival is estimated 

to have helped generate 

more than £200,000 of 

income for businesses and 

organisations across both 

the North York Moors and 

Yorkshire Dales National 

Parks. 

Running across four 

protected landscapes, North 

York Moors National Park, 

Yorkshire Dales National 

Park, Nidderdale Area of 

Outstanding Natural Beauty 

AONB, and Howardian 

Hills AONB, a significant 

proportion of the 100-plus 

events sold out early and 

attracted a healthy waiting 

list. The popularity of 

this, now biannual, event 

underlines its status as a 

UK calendar fixture and its 

importance as a valuable 

off-season income booster 

for businesses. 

Based on the attendance 

numbers and using an event 

evaluation calculator, the 

National Parks estimate 

this year’s festival will 

have helped generate over 

£200,000. The figure relates 

to both direct purchases 

such as event tickets as 

well as indirect spending 

on items such as food 

and drink or overnight 

accommodation for a 

proportion of visitors. 

Helen Dalton, tourism 

Friends @The Farm 2022 

officer for the Yorkshire 

Dales National Park, said: 

“When we look back to the 

initial festival, the events 

were mainly centred on 

traditional stargazing and 

astronomy evenings. While 

these still remain a core, 

and very important part 

of the festival, we’ve seen 

how more businesses and 

organisations are putting 

their own spin on the 

theme to appeal to new 

audiences.” 

AN INFORMAL gathering of glamping professionals is planned 

for 30 June–1 July in Peckham Bush, Kent. 

“The aim is to create an informal and friendly event where 

interested/would be site owners can meet and talk with 

professionals in the glamping market,” says co-organiser Lisa 

Bullen. “The key words here are friendly and informal. We 

aren’t chasing big numbers; it’s about enabling visitors to see 

structures and products in a natural setting.” 

Exhibitors include Tree Tents International, Lotus Belle, Glamping Fires, Coal Bunker, 

TruDomes, Solar Technology, Glampsan, DPage Contractors plus service providers to include 

social media, marketing, web development and photography. For free tickets, visit 

www.trybooking.co.uk/BNBN 

IN SHORT 

› BREWERY AND VENUE PLANS 

A former farm park in North Ayrshire has 

unveiled plans to create an exclusive 

wedding venue and micro-brewery. 

Blackshaw Farm in West Kilbride, which 

closed to the public as a tourist attraction 

in 2000, intends to host weddings all yearround 

and a Blackshaw Farmhouse Ale will 

be crafted on-site and sold at the venue and 

in local pubs. 

› COTSWOLD FARM PARK LAUNCHES 

SAFARI TENTS 

Cotswold Farm Park has revealed six 

new safari tents, extending its holiday 

accommodation which includes lodges, 

camping pods and pitches, and pop-up 

glamping village, Strawberry’s Field. 

Bookings for the safari tents start from 

£100 per night. Entry to the park is included 

in stays and the tents are dog friendly. 

› BUSINESS AFLOAT VIA 

ROSEBUD LOAN 

A Lancashire boat hire 

company has diversified 

into weddings and 

other events. Canal Boat 

Cruises, based at Riley 

Green Marina, Hoghton, allows customers 

to hire canal boats for special occasions, 

events, romantic dinners and holidays. The 

business purchased land adjacent to the 

site then developed this into a wedding 

venue with the help of a £130,000 loan from 

Rosebud which it secured in 2018. 

Rosebud is owned by Lancashire County 

Developments (LCDL), a wholly owned 

subsidiary of Lancashire County Council. It 

aims to support the growth of Lancashire 

businesses and the local economy, offering 

loans between £10,000 and £300,000 and 

business support. 

MAC CABINS LIMITED 

Modular • Artisan • Contemporary 

Glamping Sites, Leisure Parks, Holiday Rentals, 

Bed & Breakfasts (B&B), Hotels & Resorts, Golf Clubs, 

Camp Sites, Holiday Retreats, AirBnB and Land/ 

Garden Owners. 

Whether you are looking to start, 

expand or diversify your own 

existing holiday rental business, 

MAC Cabins brings you the 

perfect selection of the best 

Timber Log Cabins, Glamping 

Pods, Timber Lodges and Small 

Homes Tiny Houses, collectively, 

for you to choose from. 

MAC Cabins actively supports and promotes the sustainable tourist industry. 

0800 999 1564 

maccabins.co.uk 

WWW.OPENAIRBUSINESS.COM 5

New Opportunity 

with Forestry England: 

Campsite Development - Technical 

Recreation Programme Lead 

Forestry England have launched a search for a new role to lead and 

innovate camping and glamping development across the nation’s forests. 

If you have knowledge and experience gained within the leisure and 

accommodation sector and are ready for the challenge of growing the 

net value of camping and glamping to our business, while connecting 

people with nature in our nation’s forests, we’d love to hear from you. 

the best 

value 

100% cotton 

bell tent 

on the 

market. 

285gsm & 320gsm 

colour 

Find out more at 

civilservicejobs.service.gov.uk 

Closing date: 3rd May 

The Bell Tent Shop is a well-established online tent shop 

located in Warwickshire. We offer free shipping across the 

UK. From 100% cotton canvas, fireproof & fire-retardant 

eco-friendly, sustainable bell tents to luxurious camping 

equipment, we have it all! 

OUR TENTS ARE PERFECT FOR 

PROFESSIONAL AND INDIVIDUAL USE 

please visit us at www.thebelltentshop.co.uk 

e: thebelltentshop@gmail.com t: 07732 040468 


PRODUCT 

Caboose & Co Joins 

Cube to Enhance 

Event Accommodation 

CUBE MODULAR has acquired 

Caboose & Co luxury pop-up bedroom 

suites to further expand its portfolio 

of modular cabins for event rental. 

Caboose & Co has a diverse range of 

stylish, high quality modular hotel 

rooms designed for short 

term hire at events 

and festivals. The 

Caboose range 

complements 

Cube’s own 

Event Hotel and 

Snoozy glamping 

accommodation 

solutions, 

as well as its 

multi-functional 

and award-winning 

Continest sustainable, 

foldable event cabins. 

The acquisition of the Caboose 

& Co suite of products fits into 

Cube Modular’s strategy to bring 

a comprehensive range of event 

accommodation solutions to the 

festival and event industry. Caboose 

& Co is a well-respected brand with 

well-designed units manufactured 

to the highest quality; products that 

integrate perfectly within Cube’s 

portfolio. Units feature sun terraces, 

comfortable beds, showers and 

flushing toilets, and will appeal to 

Cube’s existing clients, particularly 

within the festival sector. 

Brandon Weston, Cube Modular’s 

MD, said: “Bringing the Caboose & 

Co products within the Cube 

group complements our 

overall modular portable 

building offering and 

significantly enhances 

our capacity to serve 

our festival and 

event customers. 

We can now provide 

a full temporary 

accommodation 

solution, including 

a whole new level of 

luxury portable hotel rooms 

alongside our award-winning and 

multi-functional Continest containers, 

Snoozy glamping pods and our own 

Event Hotel.” 

Cube will be looking to launch 

‘Caboose Town’ at next year’s 

Cheltenham Festival, offering VIP 

accommodation adjacent to the 

Cheltenham Racecourse venue. 

01905 955814, theteam@ 

cubemodular.co.uk, 

www.cubemodular.co.uk, 

New Opportunity with 

Forestry England 

FORESTRY ENGLAND has launched a search for 

a new role –Campsite Development Technical 

Recreation Programme Lead to lead and 

innovate camping and glamping development 

across the nation’s forests. 

This is a national role based on a combination 

of office based and virtual working. The role can 

be based at any Forestry England office with 

good travel and IT connections. 

Forestry England is the country’s largest 

land manager, caring for the nation’s forests for 

people, nature and the economy. Whilst being 

the biggest provider of outdoor recreation in 

England, its recreation and visitor experience 

business plays an essential role in fulfilling 

the purpose of Forestry England. It believes 

that the immersion into nature, adventure and 

direct access to the recreational facilities that its 

campsites provide is a unique and desirable offer 

that already attracts year-round repeat visitors. 

There are currently 18 campsites in operation 

and the plan is to diversify and grow this 

unrivalled offer, establishing new camping, 

glamping and motorhome products and 

experiences in a greater range of forest locations. 

Forestry England is looking for a talented 

individual to take an insight-led approach 

to innovate and deliver commercially viable 

new offerings and establish new and effective 

relationships with developers and operators. 

If you have knowledge and experience gained 

within the leisure and accommodation sector 

and are ready for the challenge of growing 

the net value of camping and glamping to the 

business while connecting people with nature in 

our nation’s forests, Forestry England would love 

to hear from you. 

Closing date: 3 May. Find out more at 

www.civilservicejobs.service.gov.uk 


PRODUCT 

Instant, 

Low Impact 

Foundations 

BASED IN the West Country, with a network 

of regional installation partners, FIRST 

BASE Ground Screws UK is a young and 

fast-growing company supplying bespoke, 

instantly loadable foundations for modular 

and steel/timber framed constructions such 

as lodges, pods, staging and tent/awning 

anchors, even on heavily sloping ground. 

New for 2022, FIRST BASE has introduced 

its PRO-V series of extendable screws to 

the UK market, which are perfect for poor 

ground conditions, sand and areas prone 

to high moisture content. The recent 

collaboration in the Netherlands on the 

Marker Wadden nature reserve created 

screw foundations for timber-framed 

accommodation buildings, standing on 

sand, clay and silt extracted from the 

Markermeer. Closer to home, FIRST BASE is 

currently supplying screw pile foundations 

and project support for eight eco-lodges 

around a lake near York, among many other 

projects. 

Ground screws offer a simple and costeffective 

alternative to concrete bases, with 

many sustainability benefits too. Installed in 

minutes, they cause minimal disruption or 

vibration to soil structure, and tree roots just 

grow around them. If structures ever need 

to be moved, the screw piles can simply be 

unscrewed and re-used! 

01548 859879, info@firstbasegroundscrews. 

co.uk, www.firstbasegroundscrews.co.uk 

Built to 

Impress 

RURAL ACCOMMODATIONS is one of the UK’s 

leading suppliers of log cabins and chalets 

for domestic or commercial use, all with a 

distinctive style, they are designed and built 

to impress. 

The company is now delighted to introduce 

bespoke hand built shepherds huts, A-frames 

and pods to its ever increasing portfolio, all 

to the very highest standard. The perfect 

business opportunity, additional living 

space or for catering, structures are available 

in various sizes, painted and decorated 

throughout in a colour of your choice and 

ready to furnish. 

All structures are fully insulated with 240V 

electrics, double sockets throughout, internal 

and external lighting, double glazed windows 

and stable or double doors and laminated 

flooring. Shepherds huts come with cast 

iron wheels, steerable chassis and draw bar. 

Optional extras are available on request 

such as kitchen, bathroom/shower room, log 

burner etc. 

01524 792633, logcabinworld@btinternet. 

com, www.logcabinworld.co.uk 


ZehnderPumpen 

Te 

T 

chnology 

We’ve combined our relentless pursuit of innovation with 

Zehnder’s German engineering to bring some new, heavy-weight 

lifting stations to the commercial and industrial sector. They’re 

available in one or two pump options and in single or three-phase 

specifications. So, it doesn’t matter if it’s a factory or an office block, 

we’ve got the power you need to get the job done.

INDUSTRY OVERVIEW 

Event Production Show 

A round up of the 2022 Event Production Show 

DEDICATED TO the live events industry 

across sports, music and culture, The Event 

Production Show (EPS) brought together 

event professionals on the 8-9 March at ExCel 

London. 

Visitors came to experience a showcase 

of the latest products and services 

including staging, AV, equipment hire, event 

technology, temporary structures, security 

and more. 

From working collectively to tackle 

challenges including soaring costs, supply 

chain issues, sustainability goals and 

attracting new event professionals, to 

embracing new tech and new ways of 

working to evolve event offerings, the 10 

Access All Areas main stage panel sessions 

proved a font of knowledge. 

In all, the conference at ExCel London 

hosted 50 senior event professionals 

including London Marathon Events director 

Hugh Brasher, Wimbledon Championships 

operations director Michelle Dite, AEG 

Europe chief operating officer John Langford, 

Kilimanjaro Live director and Ed Sheeran UK 

promoter Steve Tilley, AIF CEO Paul Reed, 

End of the Road festival MD Lauren Down, 

Vision Nine festival director Kevin Moore, PGA 

European Tour championship director Mark 

Casey, S&C Productions head of partnerships 

Chris Jammer, Kilimanjaro Live COO Zac Fox, 

We Are The Fair CEO Nick Morgan and Ascot 

head of venue operations Joanna Wales. 

Brasher emphasised the importance of the 

Access All Areas conference at EPS as a forum 

for debate and exchange of ideas. He said: 

“The industry is still in a period of transition; 

there are lots of uncertainties in the market, 

so the important thing to carry on doing 

is talking and listening to each other and 

helping each other. The fact is you have got 

people from across the industry talking – I 

was getting some brilliant nuggets that I have 

been using in other conversations across our 

business.” 

The all new Fanzone provided an 

alternative space for suppliers, organisers 

and associations to meet and network as 

well as enjoy a drink while catching up with 

industry colleagues. The area presented an 

opportunity for sponsors to showcase their 

products by replicating a real life fanzone, 

with clips of the most memorable sporting 

moments in history displayed on a mobile 

LED screen. 

OAB’s Top Picks 

Eventclean 

01443 844492, info@eventclean.co.uk , www.eventclean.co.uk 

Eventclean specialises in event cleaning and waste management. With over 25 

years’ experience, it has catered to some of the most high profile events in the 

country including the Rugby World Cup Fanzone in 2015, the UEFA Champions 

League Final in 2017 and the Volvo Ocean Race in 2018. It also introduced waste 

sorting and recycling services to the National Eisteddfod in Cardiff Bay in 2018 

and has been the cleaning contractor for the RHS Flower Shows for many years. 


INDUSTRY OVERVIEW 

Tysers 

0203 915 0000 

www.tysers.com 

Tysers is an established Lloyd’s broker, trading 

for more than 200 years and offering specialist 

solutions and expert advice on insurance and 

risk management. It arranges cover for some of 

the biggest events in the calendar worldwide and 

insures some of the most prestigious international 

artists. Its reputation and experience is significant 

and the in-house team supports the efficient 

management and settlement of claims. 

CORE Bar and Event Hire 

0845 299 6499 

sales@core-barandeventhire.com 

www.core-barandeventhire.com 

CORE creates multi-level event structures from carbon fibre 

modular panels which can be configured to provide VIP areas, 

viewing platforms and bars. Lightweight and strong, they are 

easily branded and can be built by a small team in a very short 

space of time with no specialist knowledge or tools. 

CORE also supplies modular bars and the ‘Wheel in Cellar 

in a Box’ kit that allows kegged beers whenever and wherever 

needed. 

Cartoseat 

+31 (0)765 791178 

info@cartoseat.com 

www.cartoseat.com 

Cartoseat supplies sustainable, printable 

cardboard event furniture which is sturdy, practical 

and 100% recyclable. The range includes stools, 

bars, benches, chairs and tables, all of which can 

be printed with a client’s brand or messaging. 

Furniture can be set up and taken down in no time 

and is easily transported and stored. 

Event in a Tent 

01978 661449 

info@event-in-a-tent.co.uk 

www.event-in-a-tent.co.uk 

Whether you’re having a 

party, wedding celebration, 

corporate get-together or a 

festival, Event in a Tent has a 

tipi or tent to suit. The range 

incorporates giant Nordic 

tipis, stretch tents, timber 

domes and, new to the UK, 

quad domes – square based 

geodesic roofed structures. 

The team also supplies dining 

dens and undertake bespoke 

projects. 


PEOPLE 

ENTREPRENEUR’S CHAT 

Helen McCombie 

Armstrong 

We 

talk to Helen McCombie 

Armstrong about how the 

phenomenal success of her 

bell tent hire business funded 

the start-up of permanent site 

Glamp and Tipple in Norfolk 


PEOPLE 

he pandemic was hell for so many people but 

for us it has marked a real opportunity,” says 

Helen McCombie Armstrong, co-creator of yurt 

glampsite Glamp and Tipple. 

“I had run my own agency providing pet, 

house, child and elderly relative care for 10 years 

but with kids of my own it became too stressful. 

In December 2019 I moved away from that 

business and was just taking a few months to 

reset and figure out what to do next when Covid 

hit.” 

Helen’s wife Lou was working 50 hour 

weeks as a shift manager at Lidl to keep the 

family afloat. “I am a trained dog trainer and 

behaviourist so I had been doing a bit of that 

to keep the money coming in but when Covid hit I wasn’t able to 

work,” says Helen. “We were lucky that Lou is a key worker, but 

financially things were squeaky! It was then that Lou had the idea 

of getting a bell tent to hire out locally. We love glamping so were 

pretty familiar with bell tents, and it seemed like a no brainer what 

with lockdown meaning people couldn’t go anywhere.” 

It seems the couple hit gold, and within two weeks they had 

gone from a single tent to eight, along with eight Lazy Spa electric 

hot tubs. Lou’s days got even busier and the family, including four 

children, worked tirelessly to service the demand. 

“We went all over the south of England,” says Helen. “Surrey, 

Norfolk, Suffolk, Hampshire, Kent etc. We would set one tent up, 

drive straight to another place to take one down, then back to base 

for a deep clean before getting straight on the road again to the 

next booking. For Lou, this was often after having already done a 

5am-2pm shift, often working 20 hour days. We hardly slept, with 

me doing all the admin at night, and we were home schooling too!” 

“WE LOVE 

GLAMPING SO 

WERE PRETTY 

FAMILIAR WITH 

BELL TENTS, AND 

IT SEEMED LIKE 

A NO BRAINER 

WHAT WITH 

LOCKDOWN 

MEANING PEOPLE 

COULDN’T GO 

ANYWHERE.” 

THE PAY OFF 

Within one season, the couple had accrued enough money to 

jump at the opportunity offered by a local farmer. “A local farmer 

approached us in August 2020 to see if we’d be interested in renting 

land to establish a permanent glampsite. This had always been 

our absolute dream. The farm is just four miles from where we live 

so we put in planning permission for bell tents along with all the 

infrastructure to do things properly – electric, water, waste and Wi- 

Fi. Planning was granted in October and we started the project in 

November, opening in April 2021.” 

The initial investment in the ground was around £150,000 and 

was entirely funded by the bell tent hire business. “We did so well 

in that lockdown season that it gave us the financial leg up we 

needed to create Glamp and Tipple,” says Helen. 

“It was obviously a huge decision and one we discussed at length 

but the feeling was we had to give it a go, even though we could 

end up losing all the money we had worked so hard to gain. 

“We are a great team and as I had previously run a successful 

business, Lou trusted me with the admin and accounts side of 

things.” 

The site offers private facilities throughout and has now, in its 

second season, has been upgraded from bell tents to yurts. “We 

tried to futureproof the site by thinking about what would happen 

if Covid reared its ugly head again and ensured that everything is 

well spaced out. Every tent has its own private toilet, shower and 

cooking facilities. 

“We are open all year round and have successfully had guests 

sleeping in bell tents throughout the winter. All the tents were 

heated with electric heaters but the bills were astronomically 

expensive, as you can imagine. That’s when we decided on 

insulated yurts. We have five beautiful structures now from Kents 

of Cornwall, and they have the added advantage of being able 


PEOPLE 

to withstand 150mph winds and feature lockable doors. We had 

thought of geo-domes but the farmer wasn’t keen as they are quite 

modern looking. If we were to open a second site I think we’d go for 

shepherd huts or safari tents.” 

I LIKE WHAT I LIKE 

During the set up phase, Helen says the family enjoyed doing their 

market research, staying at other sites to find out what worked 

and what didn’t. “We’d make lists of what we liked, didn’t like and 

wished we had – things that were annoyingly absent. We didn’t go 

to any trade shows as we already had a clear idea in our mind of the 

structures we wanted and had done extensive research online into 

bookings and marketing. 

“One area we quickly learned we couldn’t scrimp on was hot 

tubs. Originally we had planned to make use of our rental Lazy Spas 

but there were a few reasons that this wasn’t going to work. Firstly, 

the regulations dictate that tubs have to be emptied and cleaned 

between guests. This is fine except that an electrically heated Lazy 

Spa can take up to 24 hours to get to temperature, which was 

obviously not going to work. They are 

also expensive to run and easily broken. 

We ended up with timber wood-fired 

hot tubs with jets and lights from 

Gardenvity, who did us a great deal on 

five tubs. 

“We didn’t use to heat the tubs for 

clients but experience has shown us 

that people are rubbish at making 

fires! They either put two logs on and 

complain it won’t heat up or they make 

a huge fire and make it too hot. We now 

get the tubs ready for guests who book 

them and they can keep them topped up with heat. We also learned 

from feedback that not all people want a tub so we now offer them 

as an added extra that’s bookable night by night.” 

Glamp and Tipple is listed with numerous OTAs and on many 

directories including Airbnb, Booking.com, Cool Camping, 

Glampingly, Cool Stays and Love Glamping. “If I’m honest, I don’t 

understand why people don’t list in more places,” says Helen. 

“Would they get that booking if they didn’t list there? They may 

be down a 10-15% commission but lots of links scattered over the 

internet can really help your Google rankings. Many directory sites 

charge an annual listing fee, which is easily absorbed. Interestingly 

90% of our bookings come direct through our website but we have a 

required field that asks where the customer has found us and many 

will have seen us elsewhere first before Googling to find out more. 

“We use the Bedful booking system which was part of the Cool 

Camping group. I believe it has just been sold to Hip Camp UK – the 

Airbnb for outdoor accommodation. There hasn’t been great press 

about Hip Camp so we’ll see how it goes!” 

Helen’s pricing strategy pitches Glamp and Tipple a step above 

the majority of sites. “We are open year round and charge between 

£140-£220 a night depending on the season and day of the week. 

From October to March, we keep our prices the same but offer a 

discount code to make them 20-30% cheaper. 

“You can’t please all of the people all of the time. We got a 

message recently saying we were too expensive after announcing a 

special deal at £440 for a two night stay in our six person yurt with 

the hot tub. I split it up and showed that this worked out at £37 per 

night per person including VAT, which is certainly not the cheapest 

but I doubt you’d find a Travelodge for that!” 

FINDING PEOPLE 

Glamp and Tipple now has five members of staff who work on a 10- 

15 hour per week basis. “It works really well and means we can take 

time off and enjoy our own holidays,” says Helen. “We have been so 


“WE HAVE BEEN SO LUCKY TO FIND THE 

RIGHT PEOPLE AND RECRUITED VIA INDEED 

AND, MUCH MY PREFERENCE, PERSONAL 

RECOMMENDATION. I FIND THAT PEOPLE 

WHO ARE RECOMMENDED TEND TO HAVE 

A SIMILAR MIND SET TO THE PERSON WHO 

RECOMMENDED THEM!” 

lucky to find the right people and recruited via Indeed and, much my 

preference, personal recommendation. I find that people 

who are recommended tend to have a similar mind set to 

the person who recommended them!” 

By June 2021, the site was so busy that Lou left Lidl and 

joined the Glamp and Tipple team full time. “Lou heads 

up site maintenance, cleaning, refilling the tubs etc. I take 

care of the bookings, HR, and the legal side of things. We 

also still have the hire business, although demand has 

obviously changed and we mostly do events now. It’s 

wonderful being our own bosses and looking towards the 

future and exciting plans for our enterprises.” 

New offerings at Glamp and Tipple include dog 

friendly glamping and weddings. Helen and Lou also 

have ambitions to open a second site. “Covid was hell 

for everyone but if it hadn’t happened we wouldn’t be 

where we are. Our thinking was the world is going to pot, 

so we should take the opportunity given to us and do what makes us 

happy!” 



CASE STUDY 

Green & Away 

A pop-up venue with a communal 

atmosphere in Worcestershire 

We talk to Dan Lindeque 

about the 32 year old 

venue run exclusively by 

volunteers from a field 

every summer. Keeping 

spirits high whatever the 

weather with umbrellas, 

cosy breakout spaces and 

woodfired stoves, Green & 

Away has community and 

sustainability at the heart of 

its offering and welcomes 

weddings, creative courses 

and conferences to its 

unique, low impact spaces. 

When did you start your venue 

business and what is its history? 

Green & Away was started in 1990 

as a small outdoor gathering of likeminded 

individuals over a summer 

weekend. The weekend was so 

well received as a unique space in 

the outdoors, that we have since 

expanded to run a fully serviced 

temporary tented venue which 

operates with charitable aims to 

educate about environmental and 

social issues. 

We’ve been in our current location 

since 2008 and are an entirely 

volunteer run organisation which 

hosts outdoor events, conferences, 

workshops and celebrations in a low 

impact manner. 

Tell us about your location 

and site 

Nestled within a 200 acre farm 

bordering a river and woodland in 

“WE CREATE 

A SPACE THAT 

PROVIDES 

ALL THE 

CREATURE 

COMFORTS 

ONE MAY 

NEED WHILST 

HAVING A LOW 

IMPACT ON 

THE ENVIRON- 

MENT” 

rural Worcestershire, we set up our 

outdoor tented venue from scratch 

each summer with our team of 

volunteers. 

Reminiscent of a village green 

and centred around a campfire, 

our fully serviced events venue 

includes numerous structures. We 

create a space that provides all the 

creature comforts one may need 

whilst having a low impact on the 

environment. 

Adverse weather brings out 

the challenges of our venue. As 

everything we do happens under 

canvas or the open sky, ensuring our 

guests are warm, dry and happy is 

important. But good spirits, many 

umbrellas and woodfired stoves 

can overcome even the worst rain 

shower! 

Green & Away is a space for all. 

Groups therefore do not have to be 

environmentally focused to visit us 



as we can take care of everything, 

from the biodegradable soaps to the 

sustainable food preparation. 

What facilities for outdoor 

functions do you offer? 

Our key structure where events 

take place is a large marquee 

that can seat up to 140 guests for 

conferences, music and dancing or 

ceremonies. 

We have a licensed bar on site 

serving local beverages and a fully 

functional kitchen that caters three 

vegetarian meals a day, snacks and 

baked goods. Our tea tent serves 

various hot and cold drinks and 

our cosy sitting room yurt can be 

used as a breakout space or a place 

to congregate or warm up in the 

evenings. 

Integrated into the ‘village circle’ 

of structures is a small tent for 

children to play in with various toys 

and a large area for games. Electric 

lighting, Wi-Fi and 12V solar powered 

charging facilities are provided 

throughout the main area. 

We provide on-site accommodation 

in the form of a fully furnished yurt 

and bell tents, as well as a large field 

for guests to camp in with their own 

tents or campervans. 

Further facilities include hot open 

air showers powered by woodburners 

and composting toilets with 

hand washing facilities, which are 

scattered throughout the field. 

What services do you offer? 

We are able to support the planning 

of events in the lead up to the season 

and have a full volunteer crew on 

hand to support the running of 

events on site. From the arrival and 

welcoming of guests, serving drinks 

at the bar and catering, to settling 

guests in and helping with the 

smooth running of events, our team 

can support diverse events and their 

unique needs. 

As part of our educational 

aims we also offer talks and 

workshops on various 



environmental, practical or social 

issues and take guests on tours of 

the site to learn about the various 

ways in which we make Green & 

Away a sustainable venue. 

Describe how you researched and 

sourced your structures 

All our main structures are 

temporary, which we set up in one 

location every summer over a period 

of two to three weeks. These mostly 

consist of bespoke or second-hand 

canvas marquees which we have 

purchased from small British or 

European suppliers over the years. 

A number of smaller structures are 

cobbled together using excess stock 

material and many of the facilities 

are made by ourselves on site (such 

as our wooden composting toilet 

cubicles and outdoor showers). 

“EACH YEAR WE 

DECIDE HOW 

TO ARRANGE 

THE SITE TO 

BEST SUIT 

OUR SUMMER 

PROGRAMME 

AND THE EXTRA 

STRUCTURES 

WE MAY 

INCLUDE” 

We take care to consider where 

the products come from, the 

impact they may have on our field 

(such as avoiding contributing to 

microplastics) and make purchases 

guided by our procurement policy, 

always keeping safety, longevity and 

sustainability in mind. 

How do you work with your 

customers to make their event 

unique? 

Due to the temporary and low 

impact nature of our venue, we are 

very flexible in the services we can 

provide guests and tailor things to 

each event. In the run up to events 

we are in close contact with the 

organisers to ensure that we can 

accommodate their needs. 

Each year we decide how to 

arrange the site to best suit our 

summer programme and the extra 

structures we may include. Our site 

has been used by varied groups 

from lively wedding celebrations of 

140 people to an intimate workshop 

of four on a painting course. By 

our very nature as a low impact 

environmental organisation, we 

aim to ensure that everyone leaves 

us feeling a sense of experiencing 

something new or familiar in a 

unique setting. 

How do you publicise yourself? 

The large majority of new enquiries 

for bookings come from our website, 

social media and search engine 



advertising. We also rely on word 

of mouth through our extensive 

network of volunteers and previous 

guests. 

How would you describe your 

style or unique selling point? 

Green & Away offers an open space 

for people from all walks of life to 

explore, experience and further their 

knowledge on low impact living and 

sustainability issues. Community 

is at the heart of our organisation, 

reflected in our village green, 

our volunteer community and 

engagement with our guests. 

As our venue is so closely 

entwined with the surrounding 

landscape, Green & Away is a space 

to leave the city behind without 

having to sacrifice your creature 

comforts. We create an easy going 

and safe space for people to reflect, 

work or simply relax and enjoy 

themselves. 

What challenges have you faced 

historically? 

The very nature and ethos of our 

“GREEN & 

AWAY IS RUN 

BY A TEAM 

OF AROUND 

10 TRUSTEES 

WHO OVERSEE 

THE IN AND 

OUT OF 

SEASON 

OPERATIONS 

OF THE 

ORGANISATION 

AS WELL AS 

ENSURING OUR 

CHARITABLE 

AIMS ARE MET” 

venue brings with it a certain level 

of resiliency as we can respond 

relatively reflexively to smaller 

challenges as they arise. Having 

tented and temporary structures 

gives us much flexibility, however 

this also brings short term 

unforeseen challenges such as the 

damage of canvas following heavy 

rain. One of our main challenges is 

navigating mud after long periods 

of rain, requiring us to find ever new 

ways to ensure accessible walkways. 

How did Covid-19 impact you? 

Covid-19 has led to the first (and 

hopefully last!) time that we have 

had to fully cancel a season in our 

30 years of operation. The trustee 

board met numerous times to 

discuss the impact of Covid-19 and 

government restrictions however 

ultimately we were unable to run. 

We are fortunate enough to be 

a well-established organisation 

which operates on a not for profit 

basis and therefore could handle 

missing two seasons. This has 

brought its own challenges in terms 

of maintenance of equipment, 

keeping up a profile as well as 

volunteer engagement during an 

extended hiatus. 

How large is your team – any 

special people you’d like to 

mention? 

Green & Away is run by a team of 

around 10 trustees who oversee the 

in and out of season operations of 

the organisation as well as ensuring 

our charitable aims are met. During 

the summer season we have a 

changeable team of around 20-40 

volunteers and interns living on 

site. We also have a coordinator to 

ensure the venue runs smoothly. 

What are your plans for next 

season? 

This summer we are pleased to be 

running a full season after a two year 

hiatus during Covid, with a number 

of exciting events lined up consisting 

of both familiar faces and new ones. 

Describe your average day midseason 

Our days differ a bit depending on 

whether we have guests on site or 

not. When we have no guests, the 

volunteers gather each morning for 

a meeting where we check in and 

share out the jobs for the day, which 

revolve around maintaining the 

site and getting it ready for the next 

guests. Tea and cake are bountiful, 

and when the site is ship-shape – 

wood chopped, accommodation 

cleaned ready, food prepared, 

ongoing maintenance done etc. – 

volunteers have time to enjoy the 

field or engage with the educational 

program we provide. 

During event days, the 

daily routine is tailored to the 

requirements of the event and 

our volunteers ensure the smooth 

running of the site, catering and bar 

or help with the program. 

What are you most proud of? 

Despite being a completely new 

team each season made up of old 

and new faces, we manage to host 

and run successful events each year. 

The whole Green & Away team is 

made up of hard working volunteers, 

who successfully come together 

to professionally and competently 

run the venue, and have a lot of fun 

while doing so! 

What advice could you give 

to someone coming into the 

industry? 

First-hand experience is golden – 

make sure valuable knowledge is 

written down in order to share with 

others and increase the resilience of 

your team. Always have a back-up 

plan or be ready to adapt. 

ADDRESS BOOK 

DETAILS 

Green & Away 

Bransford 

Worcestershire 

www.greenandaway.org 


www.oldskoolbusevents.com 

Instagram & Facebook @oldskoolbusevents 



Go Outdoors 

Outdoor weddings are here to stay as the government announces 

a permanent extension to licensed wedding venues 

GETTY IMAGES 

AFTER A robust campaign by members 

of the wedding industry, the interfaith 

community and the wider public, the 

government has announced that outdoor 

civil weddings and partnerships at 

licensed venues will be made permanently 

legal in England and Wales from April 

2022. This legislation will be a permanent 

extension to the temporary measures 

that were introduced in 2021 to enable 

couples to safely marry outdoors during 

the pandemic. 

A government consultation found 

that 96% of respondents backed this 

permanent change. 93% also supported 

extending it to religious ceremonies. This 

change currently only applies to civil 

ceremonies and partnerships however 

further reforms to religious ceremonies 

are planned due to overwhelming support 

from all major faith groups. 

This is exciting news for the wedding 

and events industry and opens the door 

for couples to plan their dream outdoor 

summer wedding. 

WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR COUPLES? 

Couples are often looking for more 

meaningful ways to personalise their 

wedding and this change will give them 

greater choice and freedom to create a 

“IF AN OUTDOOR CEREMONY 

IS ATTRACTIVE THEN 

EXAMINE WHAT OUTDOOR 

SPACE THE VENUE CAN 

OFFER AND WHETHER 

IT IS SUITABLE FOR THE 

CEREMONY” 

more authentic ceremony. The legislation 

will allow couples the ability to exchange 

their vows in the open air surrounded by 

nature. They must still book an approved 

venue but the venue licence will be 

extended to include all outdoor areas. A 

woodland glade, a lakeside jetty, on a roof 

garden or a clifftop field overlooking the 

sea. So many more possibilities! 

Before visiting wedding venues, couples 

should think about whether they want an 

indoor or outdoor ceremony. If an outdoor 

ceremony is attractive then examine what 

outdoor space the venue can offer and 

whether it is suitable for the ceremony. 

Consider seating space and accessibility 

as well as the aesthetic qualities of the 

site. If the weather forecast is poor then 

what alternative ceremony venues are 

available? Are they equal to the outdoor 

setting? Could a temporary structure such 

as a tipi or marquee be erected to provide 

shelter and enable the ceremony to 

continue outdoors? 

The ceremony will still be required to be 

officiated by a registrar and couples must 

adhere to the legal preliminaries including 

giving notice of their marriage or civil 

partnership and providing identification 

documents. The ceremony must also 

include specific vows and be free of any 

religious influence. 

WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR WEDDING 

VENUES? 

Lots of calls from couples who have 

already booked the venue and are now 

thinking of changing their plans from 

indoor ceremony to outdoor ceremony! 

The venue will still be required to have 

a licence to conduct civil weddings and 

partnerships on their premises but 

the licence will no longer be restricted 

to indoor spaces. The licence will be 

extended to include all outdoor spaces 

provided that the areas are ‘seemly and 

dignified.’ This will be determined by an 

assessment undertaken by a registrar from 

the local authority. 



All venues should consider what 

outdoor spaces they can offer for wedding 

ceremonies – 

venues that can offer a larger variety of 

outdoor spaces with multiple appeal will 

stand out. Larger estates may have endless 

options from formal gardens to more 

bohemian wild woodlands, but urban 

venues can also compete with courtyard 

gardens and rooftop vistas. 

Think about the aesthetic qualities 

of the space you are offering. What is 

the appeal to couples wishing to marry 

outside? Does it offer the romance of a 

showstopping view, a unique or unusual 

setting or breathtaking beauty? Venues 

should consider investing equal time and 

money into developing their outdoor areas 

as they do their indoor areas. 

As well as creating the wow factor, also 

ensure your outdoor spaces are accessible 

and suitable for ceremonies. How many 

guests can you safely and comfortably 

accommodate in the outside space? How 

will guests get to the space? Does the 

space offer privacy or is it overlooked? 

Will you need to pacify any neighbours 

fearful of outdoor weddings? Are your 

gardeners worried about the flowerbeds? 

Will you need to leave a field fallow to 

enable alternative usage? Remember that 

requirements for public access will also 

remain. 

WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR 

REGISTRARS? 

Please bear with your local registrars. 

No doubt they are still learning about 

what the change in the law means and 

how best they can support venues and 

couples. Speaking to my local registrar 

this week, they had only found out about 

this change when we did and are catching 

up on the ramifications themselves. If 

you are planning to offer outdoor spaces 

alongside your approved indoor venues, 

please do inform your local authority well 

in advance. 

FUTURE WEDDING LAW REFORM 

This change in law is also encouraging 

news ahead of the publication of the Law 

Commission’s report into the proposed 

reform of the Marriage Act. A final report is 

expected in July and is intended to provide 

recommendations for a “reformed law of 

weddings that will allow couples greater 

choice within a simple, fair and consistent 

legal structure.” Principally we hope that 

the reform will remove any unnecessary 

regulation and increase choice for 

couples. Consideration is being made to 

the legal preliminaries required before 

the wedding, removing the restrictions 

on where a wedding can take place, who 

GETTY IMAGES 

“AS WELL AS CREATING THE WOW FACTOR, ALSO ENSURE 

YOUR OUTDOOR SPACES ARE ACCESSIBLE AND SUITABLE 

FOR CEREMONIES. HOW MANY GUESTS CAN YOU SAFELY AND 

COMFORTABLY ACCOMMODATE IN THE OUTSIDE SPACE?” 

can solemnise a marriage, if specific 

vows are required and how marriages are 

registered. 

The anticipation is that a reform will 

offer couples more freedom and inclusivity 

than ever before to choose how and where 

they conduct their marriage or partnership 

ceremonies: 

• Instead of venues being licensed, an 

officiate could be registered with the 

local authority. This could be a humanist 

or independent celebrant, church 

minister or civil servant who can meet 

certain stipulations. A similar officiate 

system is already in place in Australia 

and New Zealand 

• Couples could be able to choose a 

meaningful place to conduct their 

ceremony rather than an approved 

venue. This could be anywhere – at 

home, on a beach or in a church 

• Couples could be able to decide a style 

of ceremony that reflects them, and 

not the state or church, and choose 

authentic words personal to them 

• Couples could also have the opportunity 

to combine a secular ceremony with 

a religious ritual. This would be an 

important and inclusive change in our 

multi-faith society. Families become 

joined through marriage which can 

often create complications if each family 

has a different faith or belief 

• This reform may also help make 

weddings more affordable as couples 

are saved the cost of hiring an approved 

venue. 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR 

Charlotte Winship has 

over 20 years’ experience 

transforming good wedding 

and events venues into 

great ones. She is an expert 

in helping venues reach their 

ideal customers, maximise sales 

opportunities, increase profitability, 

establish effective teams and streamline 

venue operations. 07493 350303 / charlotte@ 

charlottewinship.com / 

www.charlottewinship.com 


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GETTY IMAGES 

INDUSTRY COMMENT 

Business Events 

A Place to Interact 

As savvy event producers recognise that face to face is more about creative interaction 

than stodgy conference programmes, savvy venues need to reshape their offering 

IT USED to be said that 'content is King'. 

Content – information, insights, and best 

practice – was used to draw people to trade 

shows. Quality content was a marker of 

excellence for a conference or event; the 

bigger the keynote’s name the bigger the 

draw. 

The market has evolved and changed 

since the world adapted to a new 

workplace regime and a heightened pace 

emerged that’s resulted in new ways and 

new means of learning. Content can now 

be consumed in many ways, on multiple 

platforms and without being bound by 

date or time. People draw content from 

broadcast and print media, and through 

live events such as conferences and 

exhibitions. There’s YouTube too, streams 

from social channels and the meteoric rise 

of podcasts. 

We can learn from anywhere nowadays 

and extract knowledge and insights from a 

swipe across our phones, and it seems this 

is having an impact on trade shows and the 

role of content at conferences. 

Nothing was more apparent than at 

a recent trade show where we secured 

speaking opportunities for some pretty 

prolific clients. In days gone by they’d have 

packed the keynote sessions out however 

they each received a handful of attendees. 

There were no normal trade show excuses 

of tube strikes or train cancellations – 

the fact is no one attended the content 

sessions. The ‘show floor' however was 

bustling and footfall by all accounts was up. 

There’s currently a marked change in 

why people are going to events. It used to 

be to gain knowledge and insights, and of 

course network with peers and discover 

new products, but our use and reason for 

trade shows has changed in line with a trip 

to the office. Stay home for the tasks that 

require quiet, whether it’s for learning or for 

problem solving, and get into the midst of 

it with colleagues and peers for networking 

and creative thinking. 

For venues who are targeting corporate 

events it’s worthwhile drawing on the 

parallels of hybrid working. Working from 

home is where the work is done, office 

based is where ideas and innovation come 

from. For folk in the events market, it’s no 

different. Guests now come to venues to 

network, interact and bring about creativity 

and innovation. When it comes to the hard 

work, those stodgy presentations can 

be played out online and at a time that 

suits the delegate. Today, networking, 

touching base and actually shaking hands 

with colleagues and peers is the mark of a 

successful event. 

Being aware of the reason for the event 

and helping clients understand better 

what the outcomes and markers of success 

need to be will help guide organisers to 

even more successful events. The client’s 

budget may be far better spent on a drinks 

and power networking session then a full 

day conference schedule. Content can 

be consumed everywhere, anytime, but 

building back relationships can only be 

played out face-to-face. 

We used to say content was king, I firmly 

believe that today, ‘context is King’. 


Andrew White is 

MD of Triggerfish 

Communications, a 

specialist in helping heritage 

venues and leisure attractions 

build awareness and market share 

in the business of events. 

www.triggerfish.co.uk 



Experiential 

Learning 

Caroline Cooper on how to 

get team members noticing 

and learning from experiences 

inside and outside of work 

GETTY IMAGES 

MOST OF us are familiar with mystery 

shopping and using this as a way of 

gathering feedback from a customer’s 

perspective. As valuable as this is, 

if it highlights much in the way of 

improvements this can sometimes be 

taken as criticism and your team resisting 

any change. 

When your team are involved with 

identifying areas of improvement for 

themselves it means you’ll have far more 

buy-in, and with it a commitment to 

making the changes happen. 

So how do you do this? One of the 

biggest mistakes is to make this too 

generic. If you ask people to feedback any 

observations you’ll get at best one or two 

things they liked or didn’t like. But what 

you really want them to think about is why 

they liked/didn’t like it, how it made them 

feel, and what you can learn and apply (or 

avoid) in future? 

Here are three ways you can apply the 

mystery shopping concept to help shape 

improvements and seven considerations 

for continuous improvement. 

GETTY IMAGES 

1 

SELF-AUDIT 

The easiest and most basic way is to create a 

checklist of every last detail you’d expect to see, 

hear, feel, or even smell! Make it simple for people to 

complete as a yes or no. 

The drawback with the self-audit is that your team 

are too close to the situation, they’ll never see things 

in the same way customers might and gauging what 

might be a customer’s first impression is difficult. 

However doing the self-audit before you implement 

any of the following options means team members 

have a chance to discuss and correct their own 

shortcomings before anyone points them out. 



2 

IN YOUR CUSTOMERS’ SHOES 

Allocate each team member or group 

a section of your customer journey, 

taking an aspect of your business they are 

not normally exposed to. For example, your 

housekeepers making an initial enquiry, 

your kitchen team giving a showround etc. 

You can use the same checklists as the 

self-audit, but the important thing is to 

review it through a customer’s eyes. Don’t 

forget first touch points such as website and 

enquiries, and post event such as sending 

the final invoice or follow up marketing 

messages. 

Give people guidance on what to feedback 

on, for example: 

• What were your own observations? 

• What do we do well to give customers a 

great experience? 

• If this was your business, what would you 

do differently? 

• What one thing could you start doing 

tomorrow to give customers an even 

better experience? 

Extend this activity to include sampling 

and experiencing your finest products and 

services first hand. Not only does this help 

with product knowledge but it can also be 

a fantastic way to reward team members, 

and if relevant you can include partners or 

friends to get a further perspective (and 

even greater buy-in). 

A critical consideration with this activity 

is that it’s about learning and improving, 

and for the departments under review not to 

take feedback as a criticism. 

3 

WIN-WIN 

An extension of the above is to 

learn from other businesses. 

These don’t need to be competitors, 

but venues, the high street or other 

industries altogether, that have a 

reputation for being brilliant at any 

aspect that’s important to you. 

This becomes a win-win when you 

reimburse this shopping experience 

as a thank you or a way to recognise 

a team member. So, it might be 

anything from a cup of coffee at a local 

café, to a night away in a beautiful 

location. 

Again, create a list of things you’d 

like reviewed. For example, if you’d 

like to improve your confirmation 

process, ask for specific feedback 

on what was experienced when 

Creating the culture 

For any of the above to work, here are seven 

factors to consider: 

1. Make time to review people’s observations. 

This could be a simple debrief from the day’s 

events, to audits and mystery shopping 

exercises 

2. Be specific about the criteria you want people 

to review and what specific questions you’d 

like them to answer 

3. Encourage everyone to accept feedback as an 

opportunity to learn, not to be seen as criticism 

4. Be open and honest about shortfalls or 

mistakes; they provide an opportunity for 

everyone to learn and hopefully prevent 

making them in the future 

5. Involve everyone in contributing ideas for 

improvement, not just the people directly 

involved. Recognise and reward people’s 

contribution 

6. Focus on what they can change or influence, 

not waste time and energy on the things out of 

their control 

7. Take on board your team’s observations and 

feedback. If there’s no follow through they’ll 

stop bothering to tell you. 

booking. Schedule ahead of time an 

opportunity for your team to share 

their findings: 

• What they liked and why 

• What you already do which is better! 

• What could be copied or adapted 

for your business (you might set a 

target of eg. at least three ideas you 

could apply in your own business 

• Any ideas are welcome even if 

your team members are not sure 

how to apply them. Ask them to 

still be prepared to feedback their 

observations 

• Always look for ideas on what 

you can borrow from other 

industries. To stand out you must be 

continuously improving and doing 

things differently or better than the 

competition. 


Caroline Cooper is the Founder of Naturally Loyal and has over 30 

years' training and development experience in hospitality. 

Recognising that managers in hospitality often get promoted into 

positions without much management training, her key focus is on 

developing newly promoted and junior managers to lead and engage 

their teams effectively. 

These activities were taken from Caroline’s ‘38 Customer Service Training 

Exercises and Activities’ available at www.naturallyloyal.com/resources/28activities 



PRODUCT IN FOCUS 

Bars & 

Catering 

Motorpoint Arena, Nottingham 

Product: Reusable cups 

Supplier: Green Goblet, 01278 238390, info@ 

green-goblet.com, www.green-goblet.com 

Details: The Motorpoint Arena was the first UK 

entertainment and sports venue to introduce 

reusable cups, leading the way to eliminating 

single-use cups. It hosts a wide range of events 

from ice hockey to live music and adapts its 

layout for every event it holds. 

Operating the reusable eco cups on a £1.00 

deposit scheme, the arena offers a variety of 

cups sizes and different designs. These include 

elite ice hockey league team The Nottingham 

Panthers as well as generic Motorpoint 

branding such as Christmas and Halloween 

designs. Hospitality cups are branded 

differently as no deposit is charged on them. 

By switching over to reusable cups, 

Motorpoint Arena has saved hundreds of 

thousands of single-use cups going into landfill. 

Instead, the reusable cups are supplied and 

washed by Green Goblet at one of their wash 

stations, using the latest most environmentally 

friendly washer/dryer machines. 

Since December 2017, when they first 

started operating the reusable cup scheme, 

other stadiums and arenas have followed suit. 

Green Goblet now supplies reusable cups 

and tableware to venues up and down the 

country and is helping organisations to lower 

their carbon footprint, as well as giving their 

attendees a better drinking experience. 

The great news is that Motorpoint Arena uses 

its reusable cups hundreds of times over, and at 

the end of their life they are recycled into useful 

objects such as ice scrapers or coat hangers. 

#Refill Not Landfill. 

Customer feedback: Commercial director 

Phillip Jones said: “Motorpoint Arena is proud 

of the fact that we have saved hundreds of 

thousands of cups from going into landfill over 

the years by using reusable cups throughout 

our venue. Saving the planet should be at the 

core of every organisation.” 

Great Betley 

Farmhouse, Sussex 

Product: Event catering food 

truck 

Supplier: Old Skool Bus Catering 

& Events, 07918 761981, 

hello@oldskoolbusevents.com, 

www.oldskoolbusevents.com 

Details: Being an outdoor venue, 

Great Betley Farmhouse gets lots 

of wedding couples, corporate 

clients and outdoor event 

organisers looking for quality 

catering options from awesome 

looking food trucks, as well as 

more formal seated marquee 

dining. Skool Bus Catering & 

Events offers buffet and familystyle 

seated dining as well as a 

festival food truck service, so they 

can do the wedding breakfast and 

the evening food. 

The team uses locally sourced 

food and are very experienced 

at organising both the 

catering service, and the event 

management side of outdoor 

events. They're happy to take 

work off of a venue’s hands with 

planning as well as helping with 

event management on the day. 

Skool Bus Catering & Events also 

runs licensed bars, either from a 

bar set up or from the bus itself. 

Customer feedback: Kim 

Stewart, venue owner and 

manager, said: “It's always a 

pleasure to have such helpful 



and reliable suppliers who make 

your life easier and take some 

pressure off on the big day! For 

a recent festival-style wedding 

we all worked so well together, 

supporting each other and 

working as one big team. The 

Old Skool Bus team camped 

overnight to serve breakfast to 

glampers the following day, then 

stayed behind after that to help 

everyone litter pick and tidy my 

field! 

“I'd happily recommend their 

catering, service and the unique 

American school bus kitchen to 

any of my customers!” 

PAUL EVANS 

PRODUCT SNAPSHOT 

Cellar-in-a-Box 


0845 299 6499 



Catering from a Shepherd’s Hut 

Rural Accommodations 

01524 792633 

logcabinworld@btinternet.com 

www.logcabinworld.co.uk 

Looking to start your own 

mobile food and drink business? 

Then why not choose a unique 

shepherds hut and make that 

dream come true. Quick and 

easy to move from one place to 

another, huts are ideally suited 

to festivals, artisan/local markets 

and private functions – the list 

goes on. 

Our shepherds huts can be 

designed and manufactured to 

your own individual requirements 

with a timber or corrugated 

exterior, painted and decorated 

throughout in a colour of your 

choice, furnished or unfurnished – 

you decide. 

The CORE ‘Wheel-Inn Cellar-in-a-box’ kit is a 

mobile fully featured cellar set up that allows 

you to dispense kegged beers and ciders 

whenever and wherever needed – in minutes! 

Easily integrated into CORE’s modular 

bar solution (pictured), it means you can 

have a professional bar set up for any event 

irrespective of location. The CORE ‘Wheel- 

Inn Cellar-in-a-box’ kit can dispense up 

to three different drinks and ensures that 

professionally dispensed, ice cold beverages 

= 

Bar Box 

Creative Products 

+31 (0)165 51 07 77 

sales@creative-products.nl 

www.creativestructuresworldwide.com 

Create six different bar setups from just one 

pallet box. A solid appearance, combined with 

a functional design, the Creative Elements Bar 

Box from Creative Products is distinguished 

can be served so you are not limited to only 

bottled drinks. 

The kit is ideal for any situation where you 

need to serve kegged beers and ciders in 

a temporary location without the need for 

expert installation crews. Kits are available 

to purchase or rent by contacting the friendly 

CORE team. 

by its unique features which include compact 

packaging; only one pallet box is needed 

for 12m of bar! The system adapts to every 

circumstance and uses a unique click system – 

no screws or tools are required for installation. 

The Creative Elements range offers the ideal 

temporary or semi-permanent furniture 

solution and includes lounge seats, high seats 

and tables. Available in natural impregnated, 

white or grey pinewood. 


PARTNER 

WITH US IN 

2022 & 2023 

Glamping Partnerships MADE MORE 

START SOMETHING AMAZING 

WE INVEST IN AMAZING GLAMPING 

PARTNERSHIPS, SUPPORTING 

MICRO-TOURISM 

OUR PARTNERS RANGE FROM FARMERS AND PRIVATE 

LANDOWNERS TO ESTATES AND TOURIST ATTRACTIONS. 

What they all have in common is an interest in micro-rural 

tourism, a motivation to offer great glamping hospitality, 

and at least 1 acre of land with something special to offer. 

OUR PARTNERSHIPS ARE BASED ON A 10-YEAR 

SUPPORT PLAN. We retain ownership of our pods and you 

retain ownership of your land. 

WE’RE WITH OUR PARTNERS EVERY STEP OF THE WAY. 

We invest in their journey and providing all of the tools 

needed for sustainable success. 

— Planning and architectural services 

— Cloud based booking system 

— Support with marketing and customer reservations 

— Support with business admin 

— An established brand presence and growing customer base 

— Our high spec’d 4-berth, heated and ensuite pod 

— Plus much more 

Contact a member of our team today to find out how we could invest 

in your glamping opportunity and for a complete list of our services. 

PARTNERS@FURTHER.SPACE 

WWW.FURTHER.SPACE 

FurtherSpace-Press-Ad-Open-Air-Magazine-2021-12-START-SOMETHING-AMAZING-HALF-PAGE.indd 1 03/12/2021 14:30 

Bespoke Hand Built Shepherds 

Huts, A-Frames and Pods 

Available in various sizes to suit your own requirements 

•The Perfect Business Opportunity • Additional Living Space 

• Catering/Bar Huts • Office/Studio 

CONTACT US FOR FURTHER DETAILS 

01524 792633, logcabinworld@btinternet.com, 

www.logcabinworld.co.uk 


GLAMPSITES 

CASE STUDY 

Birdholme Glamping 

Fully insulated safari lodges sleeping up to six in 

Nottinghamshire countryside 

A property development 

background put husband 

and wife team Peter and 

Holly Hinchley in good stead 

as they embarked on a low 

impact glamping enterprise 

on a 15 acre woodland site. We 

talk to Holly about how they 

created stays akin to a hotel 

room in a field, complete with 

underfloor heating and all 

mod cons. 

What’s your back story – your life before 

glamping? 

Both of us are from farming backgrounds 

and prior to starting Birdholme we have 

had various ventures dealing in antique 

furniture and then property development. 

I have a dog grooming business which I set 

up 12 years ago and our daughter Megan 

has now taken that over as well as helping 

out at Birdholme on changeover days. 

What made you decide to start offering 

glamping accommodation? 

After my husband Peter’s parents sold their 

farm they retained 15 acres on which his 

father had planted around 7,000 trees. We 

thought it was a waste not to share the 

beauty and wildlife and started looking 

into glamping options, opening Birdholme 

in October 2019. About 25 years ago we 

applied for log cabins and got turned 

down straight away by the planners, now 

planning policies have changed and we 

approached them again. 

How did you research the business 

before entering it? 

We spent a lot of time looking into other 

sites and what type of glamping attracted 

us, staying at other places and deciding 

what we would want. We wanted to be 

open all year round and with this we 

needed to consider all weathers to ensure 

luxury, comfort and warmth. 

Tell us about your location and site 

We’re based at Stanton-on-the-Wolds in 

the south of Nottinghamshire. We are 

located in the countryside with beautiful 

views, but you can be in the centre of 

Nottingham within 15 minutes. There is 

easy access to the motorway and we are 

only two and a half hours from London. 

We have five unique lodges (three are 

dog friendly), each with a fully fitted 

kitchen and bathroom, two bedrooms (one 

king room and one with two singles) and 

then we have a mezzanine bedroom with a 

double mattress on the floor. This is in the 

eaves of the lodge and is ideal for children. 


GLAMPSITES 

We provide all bedding and towels 

and guests are kept warm and 

toasty whatever the weather 

with underfloor heating and a log 

burner. There’s a Smart TV and 

the latest superfast Wi-Fi. Outside 

each cabin, there’s a large veranda 

including an electric hot tub and 

a walkway to a fire pit area which 

has a BBQ plate for alfresco dining. 

We looked at off-grid solutions 

but for what we wanted it made 

sense to put in all the services. We 

had to buy a transformer, phone/ 

broadband connections and water 

connections and supply. Each 

lodge also has its own LPG boiler 

which runs off one central gas 

tank. 

How did you tackle getting 

planning? 

The first thing we did was to 

arrange a meeting with our 

planning department. We 

explained what we would like to 

create and asked them for their 

input. We are in green belt so 

certain conditions needed to be 

met in order not to impact on the 

countryside. Because the lodge 

tents are temporary structures 

we were allowed them, although 

we had to apply for change of use 

on the land from agricultural to 

commercial use. 

The planners were very 

accommodating and in favour 

of us creating something special 

to boost tourism to Nottingham 

and create new jobs. Our biggest 

challenge was local residents 

being in uproar over the whole 

idea, thinking we were wanting 

to create a hen/stag rave/party 

venue. Since opening we’ve had 

neighbours having family stay and 

realise that what we’ve created 

isn’t threatening in any way. 

How did you finance the project? 

We applied for an EU Leader 

grant which took a lot of time but 

was definitely worth it. We then 

financed the remainder of the 

funds with loans. 


GLAMPSITES 

“AFTER STAYING IN A SAFARI TENT 

WE COULD EASILY DEFINE EXACTLY 

WHAT WE WOULD/WOULDN’T 

WANT AND, ESPECIALLY WITH THE 

ENGLISH WEATHER, WARMTH, 

COMFORT AND LUXURY WERE AT 

THE TOP OF OUR LIST” 

What glamping accommodation 

do you offer and why did you 

choose it? 

We chose safari tents (which 

we purchased from Clear Sky) 

because we could adapt them to 

how we wanted and accommodate 

a family or friends sharing. We 

fully insulated the lodges in the 

floor, wall and ceiling and put 

underfloor heating in, double 

glazed windows, doors and proper 

partitioning panels for each room. 

The inside of the lodges is like a 

hotel apartment but in the middle 

of a field in the countryside. 

Fortunately, with our property 

development background, we had 

the right tradesman to work with 

and our design was made up as we 

went along. After staying in a safari 

tent we could easily define exactly 

what we would/wouldn’t want 

and, especially with the English 

weather, warmth, comfort and 

luxury were at the top of our list. 

What occupancy levels and price 

per night do you achieve? 

It’s very hard to get a true picture 

of occupancy levels as the first 

lockdown started five months after 

we opened. We were allowed to 

re-open in July 2020 and were 100% 

fully booked right up to the end of 

that year but had to shut at the end 

of October as the second lockdown 

happened. We re-opened again in 

April 2021 and were again 100% fully 

booked until November/December 

where we had a handful of midweek 

stays available. 

Our forecast for 2022 is looking at 

80% occupancy but bookings seem 

to be slow at the moment due to 

global circumstances. Depending 

on the time of year the guests wish 

to stay our prices for a three-night 

weekend stay from Friday to 

Monday is between £684-£860 or 

a four-night mid-week stay from 

Monday to Friday between £640- 

£971. 

• Super hygienic LDPE interior lining for quick handovers. 

• Durable and classic Thermowood 

exterior complements the glamping setting. 

• Choice of Internal or External wood fired heaters. 

• Two sizes available 4 person / 8 person. 

Snowford Hill, Southam CV47 9QE t 01926 504067 

e sales@glamptubs.com www.glamptubs.com 


GLAMPSITES 

What are you most proud of? 

Seeing all our ideas come together 

and seeing our guests loving their 

experience. 

How did you work out your 

brand and how do you publicise 

yourself? 

We have a great marketing 

company called Peaky Digital 

that helped brand us, created our 

website and does all our social 

media posts. We use Supercontrol 

for our booking platform and a 

lot of work has gone into looking 

where to advertise ourselves and 

finding the right platforms as we 

are more top end. We are with 

Canopy & Stars, Coolstays, Cool 

Places and The Wanderlist. 

How would you describe your 

ethos and unique selling point? 

Unique, luxury accommodation 

with all the home comforts in the 

middle of a field offering beautiful 

views. 

How did you choose your 

interior decoration? 

I chose the décor myself and had 

bespoke sofas made. 

What challenges have you faced? 

Research is a big factor, which 

takes a lot of time. From the 

research we then took what we 

liked/wanted, added fresh ideas 

and put together our business 

profile. 

What are your plans for next 

season? 

Our plan is to try and re-coup from 

Covid. We are still feeling it now 

despite having been booked for 

the majority of last year, as a lot of 

those bookings were rebooks from 

previously cancelled stays. Last 

“UNIQUE, 

LUXURY 

ACCOM- 

MODATION 

WITH ALL 

THE HOME 

COMFORTS 

IN THE 

MIDDLE 

OF A FIELD 

OFFERING 

BEAUTIFUL 

VIEWS” 

Christmas, and even this Easter, we 

had rebooks from people we took 

payment from well over a year ago. 

Luckily we did get a little help from 

the government. 

Our next phase is to dig a natural 

swimming lake and potentially add 

more lodges 

Describe your average day midseason 

We have two changeovers per week 

on a Monday and Friday which are 

pretty manic. We have a great team 

of staff that know their jobs inside 

and out which helps! 

Our self-check-in policy and 

trying to think of everything that 

our guests need makes things very 

self-sufficient as we don’t live on 

site. We check the hot tubs every 

day and do low level maintenance 

like mowing etc. We hire in our 

laundry and towels, otherwise 

I would be washing and ironing 

constantly. 

Do you enjoy the business? 

We both love the business and both 

of our children want to eventually 

join us in the venture. 

What advice could you give 

to someone coming into the 

industry? 

Do a massive amount of research, 

have a firm idea of what you want 

to create and get the planners 

onside at the very beginning. 

Have a good business plan and be 

unique! Make sure you run the site; 

don’t let it run you! 

DETAILS 

LODGES 

Clear Sky www.safaritents.net 

BOOKINGS 

Supercontrol 

www.supercontrol.co.uk 

DIRECTORY SITES 

Canopy & Stars 

www.canopyandstars.co.uk 

Cool Places www.coolplaces.co.uk 

Cool Stays www.coolstays.com 

The Wanderlist 

www.thewanderlist.uk 

BRANDING & PR 

Peaky Digital 

www.peakydigital.co.uk 

WOOD BURNING STOVES 

Welsh Dragon 

www.welshdragonstoves.co.uk 

FURNITURE 

Storm Interiors 

www.interiorstorm.co.uk 

DETAILS 

Birdholme Glamping 

Birdholme Wood 

Stanton-on-the-Wolds 

Nottinghamshire NG12 5BQ 

www.birdholmeglamping.co.uk 


UK’s Leading Safari Tent Supplier 

Increased Income - Engineered to Last 

The Clear Sky 

approach to building 

your dream and 

generating income… 

We love to stay friends with our clients, from supply to 

construction we also provide ongoing support, advice 

and feature some of our unique sites in our case studies, 

brochures and virtual tours. Featured here is the 

beautiful Birdholm owned by Peter Hinchley, 

Dale2Swale owned by Chris Long, Love2Stay owned by 

Salop Leisure Limited & Clear Sky’s own show tents. 

We would love to hear from you, contact us or book your free site visit today at 

The Clock House, Mount Pleasant Farm, Peckham Bush, Kent TN12 5NE 

Telephone: 0333 241 2660 Email: sales@safaritents.net 

safaritents.net

GLAMPSITES 

TRADE SECRETS 

Booking Systems 

GETTY IMAGES 

How to compare and select the right booking system with advice from Ted Howard-Jones 

IF YOU’RE running a business that takes 

bookings your customers will now expect to 

be able to book and pay online. Businesses 

that rely on taking bookings solely by phone 

or email will lose business to those that make 

it easy for a client to confirm availability, 

book accommodation, pay and receive an 

email confirmation. 

Choosing the right booking system for your 

business is vital. This is a decision you want 

to get right because moving from one system 

to another mid-season is very painful! 

COST 

From experience, the costs of these systems 

are falling as competition increases. In 

fact, the monthly, or more often annual, 

subscription costs average at £300-£400/ 

year for a five pitch glamping site. The more 

significant cost is your time; choosing the 

right system for you, setting it up, testing it 

and tweaking as your business evolves. 

Many providers of systems to this market 

have also spotted that their clients lack a 

basic website, so are including this as part of 

the package. That might be attractive, but of 

course might mean that you are even more 

“MANY PROVIDERS OF 

SYSTEMS TO THIS MARKET 

HAVE ALSO SPOTTED THAT 

THEIR CLIENTS LACK A BASIC 

WEBSITE, SO ARE INCLUDING 

THIS AS PART OF THE 

PACKAGE.” 

‘tied-in’ to their subscription if you choose to 

change suppliers. 

CHOOSING A PROVIDER 

There is a huge variety of providers, but 

don’t be overwhelmed. Many provide similar 

features but it pays to do your research. 

Ask them to identify three or four of their 

customers similar to your business in both 

scale and type. Call them and see how they 

like the system and what, in practice, the 

pros and cons are. 

Systems broadly break down into two 

types. The most common are for overnight 

accommodation owners, such as glampsites 

and B&Bs. However, these aren’t suitable 

for on-farm activities such as horse riding or 

paintballing so, if you are running this type 

of venture, choose an ‘appointments’ type 

system that can handle time-of-day based 

slot booking. We haven’t yet seen a system 

that handles both types on one platform. 

Some suppliers help you to integrate or 

connect with other platforms such as Airbnb, 

Pitchup etc. If this is important to you now, 

or in the future, ensure the right ‘connectors’ 

are in place and what the charges are for 

connecting you. 

TEST, TEST AND TEST AGAIN 

Take advantage of the free trial periods 

offered by most suppliers. Set your system 

up follow the tutorials or advice, then ask the 

supplier to review your setup. Get as many 

friends and relations as you can to create test 

bookings before you go live. Then make sure 

you wipe all these bookings off. 

One of the major advantages of online 

bookings is that it helps you build a detailed 

customer list. Ensure the supplier allows you 

to download and re-use your customer data 

and that both you, and they, comply with 

GDPR rules. 


GLAMPSITES 

CHECK LIST 

When it comes to choosing the right system for you and your business, here is a 

useful checklist to ensure you are getting what you need out of the system: 

Pricing 

Some systems charge per year or per 

month. Others charge on the number 

of bookings you take or a percentage of 

the transaction, or a combination of the 

above. 

Visuals 

Take a look at both the ‘front end,’ what 

the customer sees, and the ‘back end,’ 

what you see. Can that front end be 

included within or made to look like 

your existing website or do you get a 

‘free’ website as part of the package? 

Mobile friendly 

Can both you as the business owner, 

but more importantly your customers, 

access the system from a smartphone 

or tablet? Test this thoroughly. 

Increasingly, transactions are now done 

from these devices. 

Language 

Many booking systems are designed for 

B&Bs and hotels and routinely use the 

term ‘room’ throughout. Make sure you 

can change this to ‘bell tent’ or ‘fully 

furnished pod’ etc. 

Integration 

Ensure you can ‘integrate’ the booking 

system into your own website/Facebook 

page utilising ‘widgets’ or similar. 

Customers expect the experience to be 

seamless. 

Phone bookings 

Can you also manually take a phone 

booking? Does the system show you the 

difference between a phone booking or 

a web booking? 

Prices and deposits 

If you vary your prices at different times 

of the year, have ‘minimum stays’ or 

take a one night or percentage deposit, 

can the system be set up to allow this? 

Occupancy changes 

How does the system cope when you 

want to swap a booking from one pitch/ 

pod/tent to another? Can you ‘drag 

and drop’ a booking so that you can 

maximise occupancy? 

Ease of use 

Is all the information about a customer 

on one screen, or do you have to juggle 

between various tabs? 

Notifications 

Do you get an email alert when a person 

books so that you can review the 

booking? 

Flexibility 

Can you access the system from your 

phone while away from your PC? If so, 

can you then add days to a booking as 

you talk to a customer and persuade 

them to stay longer or see how much 

they owe you? 

Customer contact 

Does the system show you which emails 

it has sent to a customer and if they 

have been received or bounced? 

Card payments 

If you want to add this, does the system 

allow you to integrate things with a 

payment platform such as Stripe? 

Provisional bookings 

If you want to ‘vet’ bookings before 

accepting them (perhaps to check one 

doesn’t conflict with a phone booking 

taken by a family member) make sure 

your system allows this. 

Customisation 

Can you ask custom questions as people 

book? For example, you might want to 

know the type of dog they are bringing. 

Automated emails 

Ensure you can customise emails and 

that you can confirm a booking, send 

a ‘deposit received’ note, a pre-arrival 

note and a day of departure or follow-up 

note. 

Growth 

If you are considering expanding in the 

future, will the system allow for this and 

how much will it cost? 

Analytics 

Does the system produce useful daily or 

annual reports that alert you to when 

people are booked to arrive or tell you 

what the average occupancy was in each 

month/year? 

Accounting 

Does the system allow for cash, 

cheque, BACS etc. deposits and balance 

payments? Can you action refunds? 

Data capture 

Can you export the data on all your 

visitors so that you can import it into 

another system, such as MailChimp, 

for future email marketing ensuring it 

complies with GDPR? 

Suppliers 

There are many suppliers and new 

ones seem to pop up every month, 

but to get started these ones are more 

geared towards smaller tourism-based 

enterprises: 

• Anytime Booking 

• Bedful 

• Bookalet 

• Free to Book 

• GlampManager 

• Innstyle 

• Q-Book 

And for an appointments-base system: 

• Acuity Scheduling 

• SimplyBook.me 

If you are running an enterprise with 

many (10+) options for clients to choose 

from, the list of suppliers increases as 

you will become more relevant to the 

systems set up for hoteliers. 


Ted Howard-Jones grew up 

on his father's mixed farm 

in the Chiltern Hills. The 

livestock has now gone but 

he has put his early career in 

marketing (working with clients 

such as BT and Ericsson) to good use, 

developing three profitable income streams. 

Ted has recently started working with other 

local farmers to help them with their marketing 

and has spoken at farmers’ clubs, CLA and 

IAgSA events about rural marketing. He also 

helps to support 500+ small caravan sites 

across the country with their marketing. He has 

recently served on the Caravan & Motorhome 

Club Council and helped develop the CL 

Booking app. ted@countrysidemarketing.co.uk 


GLAMPSITES 

FACTORY VISIT 

Glampsan 

A look behind the scenes of Glampsan’s 

production plant 

Regular readers of this magazine will recognise 

Glampsan as a provider of a range of products 

and solutions to help capture and control waste 

at ‘off-grid’ glamping sites. Alongside its broad 

product offering of composting loos, sewage 

lifting stations, waste pumps and small waste 

treatment plants, one of Glampsan’s core 

products is the Flat Tank. Quite simply, this is a waste collection tank, 

available in three sizes. It is positioned underneath or adjacent to a 

glamping pod to collect toilet, sink and shower waste, or sited on a 

campsite to allow guests to dispose of their chemiloo toilet waste. 

When the tank is full, the waste is removed by a third party waste 

contractor. 

It’s the way many of Glampsan’s customers start in the glamping 

business. These tanks are robust but lightweight, they do not require 

planning permission (as they are not installed underground) and they 

allow the flexibility to move them around as a business develops. The 

planning process to install underground infrastructure is invariably 

long-winded, or sometimes impossible, so Flat Tanks give you the 

option to get into business quickly and cost-effectively. 

Glampsan, and its mother company Plastic Solutions (Aldridge), has 

been manufacturing in the UK since 2010. Now in its fifth version, the 

Flat Tank sounds a simple product, but years of development and design 

time have gone into today’s version, and its production is anything but 

simple. The following is how it transforms from plastic powder to a tank 

underneath your glamping pod. 

MANUFACTURING PROCESS 

1ROTATIONAL MOULDING 

If you imagine a chicken roasting in an oven on a rotating spit, then you’re not far off 

understanding how Flat Tanks are made. Instead of an open spit, Flat Tanks are ‘baked’ in a 

specifically-designed two-part steel or aluminium tool (see picture and imagine a cake tin) weighing 

in excess of 1300kg. To bake a 3m x 2m wide product, our oven is just a larger version of the one in 

your kitchen and it uses a lot of fancy control software! 

2 GREEN 

CREDENTIALS 

Flat Tanks are 

made from a durable 

polyethylene, the same 

long-lived material used in 

heating oil or agricultural 

tanks. No single use 

plastics here. Many of the 

oldest tanks we produced 

when we started in 2010 

are still in active service! 

This plastic is 

impregnated with UV filters 

and is lightweight yet 

strong and pliant enough 

to cope with the bumps 

and knocks of working 

life. Compare this with a 

metal tank three times 

the weight, which needs 

specialist equipment to 

move and may only last 

two years before rusting 

through. 


GLAMPSITES 

4 

POST PRODUCTION AND SHIPPING 

Prior to fitting out each tank with its standard 

components, we perform an air test for quality 

control purposes and then assemble tank lids, caps 

and graphics. We ship tanks direct to you from 

our production plant or into our West Midlands 

warehouse. 

From this point on, our experienced sales and 

technical team respond to customers’ additional 

requirements by supplying extra equipment such as 

an Elsan Tipping 

Point, a high 

level alarm, an 

odour trap, a WCconnector 

kit or 

a linking kit. We 

have sorted it all 

out, so you don’t 

need to worry. 

3 PRODUCTION 

The two-part tool is opened by lifting the lid away from the base 

with a crane. Polyethylene powder is placed inside and the tool 

is closed up again. The whole tool is then craned into the oven and 

attached to the rotating spit. The control software now performs its 

magic to regulate the heat and air flow in the oven and rotate the tool so 

that the plastic inside flows to the outside to form the shape of the tank. 

After 20 minutes of baking, the tool is craned away from the oven 

where it will be cooled by fans. After another 20 minutes, the lid is 

removed and the cooled plastic moulding can be taken out. The whole 

one hour cycle then repeats itself, meaning we get about eight Flat 

Tanks moulded in an eight hour shift. This consistent and reliable 

quality has kept us moulding throughout the Covid era, supplying 

Nightingale hospitals and testing centres, and now carrying on to 

respond to the staycation boom. 

PROFILE 

Glampsan 

A division of Plastic Solutions (Aldridge) 

0800 999 6010 

www.glampsan.com 

www.plasticsol.com 

LOCATION: 

Merchant’s Way, Aldridge, 

West Midlands 

WS0 8SW 

PRODUCT: Flat Tank 

waste collection tank 


GLAMPSITES 

GETTY IMAGES 

TRADE SECRETS 

Composting Toilets 

The best composting toilets with advice from Practically Green 

DRY TOILETS are a great way to 

go off-grid at your glamping site. 

They require no water and often 

no electricity. Dry toilets come 

in a variety of types, including 

incinerating and bag and wrap, but 

arguably the most ecological and 

suitable for hospitality set ups are 

composting toilets. 

Compost toilets treats faeces 

through a biological process that 

decomposes organic elements, 

transforming human waste into 

compost. Microorganisms undertake 

composting under controlled aerobic 

circumstances (primarily bacteria and 

fungus). 

After each use, a carbon addition 

such as sawdust, peat moss or 

coconut coir is supplied to assist 

decomposing the solid waste in 

various types of composting toilets. 

This method creates air gaps for 

aerobic decomposition and also 

raises the amounts of carbon and 

nitrogen, which reduces possible 

odours. This simple, sustainable 

technology has been used for 

thousands of years and is now 

making a much-needed comeback! 

WHICH TOILET? 

There are a variety of manufacturers 

of quality composting toilets on the 

market, including Nature’s Head, 

Sun Mar, Airhead and Separett, to 

mention a few. 

It’s worth understanding the 

difference between self-contained 

and central system toilets. Selfcontained 

units are usually preferable 

for glampsites and cabins as opposed 

to central systems as the pedestal 

and the composting chamber are 

all-in-one – perfect for structures with 

limited or no underfloor space. 

You should also consider toilets 

that divert urine into a separate 

chamber to that of solid waste. 

Composting is slowed by the addition 

of urine, which cools and dampens 

the material. Toilets that feature 

urine separators, channel urine into 

a separate receptacle which will need 

to be emptied. You can alternatively 

choose to filter urine through an 

external soakaway (check with 

your local rules and reg regarding 

expelling urine in this manner) or 

collect it in a larger external tank 

for manual removal by a specialist 

company. 

COMPOSTING METHODS 

True composting toilets feature 

chambers that hold and break down 

dry matter so that what you end up 

with looks and smells like soil. Others 

require emptying and the dry matter 

disposed of, but are kept odour free 

by means of a fan which dries the 

solid matter. 

Here are some examples of our 

favourite composting toilets: 

BEST OVERALL 

NATURE’S HEAD DRY COMPOSTING TOILET 

Because of its simplicity and compactness, this is a 

self-contained and portable type that uses a urine 

separating system, making it excellent for glamping. 

Due to its hand crank agitation in its core, Nature’s 

Head Dry Compost Toilet with standard crank 

handle design provides users with a better and faster 

cleaning ability. 

This waterless toilet functions on a urine-diverting 

mechanism and is self-contained. It is built-in with a 

12v power plug and fan for low volume air circulation. 

Maintenance is fairly straightforward and it has a 

quick installation process. It is free from bad smells, 

running on a waterless operating system. However, 

the toilet requires the urine container to be emptied 

frequently. 


GLAMPSITES 

MOST EFFICIENT COMPOSTING 

SUN-MAR EXCEL 

Sun Mar has a patent for the most efficient 

composting method, and has a long-standing history 

of creating and producing composting toilets. An 

innovative ‘Bio-drum’ is included in every unit that 

allows the rotation of the compost. Use the handle 

at the front to rotate the drum every two days to mix 

and aerate the compost. Once a month or so roll the 

drum anticlockwise to drop some compost into the 

finishing drawer where it remains for at least another 

month to break down. This method means that you 

never have to handle any unbroken down waste – the 

output is like a fertile loamy soil made of sand, clay, 

and water. 

Despite being non-electric, the toilet is efficient 

in decomposition and disintegrates human waste 

without any smells from the process. It is able to have 

up to three users in residential settings and up to 

seven if installed in a cabin or used for weekend use. 

BEST OUT OF THE BOX 

SEPARETT VILLA 9215 AC/DC 

Separett has been developing waterless toilet solutions for over 40 

years. The Villa 9215 AC/DC is an excellent choice if you need a toilet 

that can be used both on and off the grid as it can be used with a battery 

or a solar panel. With this composting toilet, you receive everything 

you need to get started right out of the box. The Separett Villa 9215 

composting toilet doesn't require any additional parts to be functional, 

unlike some others. 

The price is a little on the high side, but you won’t have to worry 

about any odour concerns with this model. For direct venting and 

draining, the single-speed fan may reach a maximum distance of 20 feet. 

Compostable bags and a lidded waste receptacle are included. It also 

comes with a five-year warranty on manufacture defects and a threeyear 

warranty on the fan. 

BEST VALUE 

AIR HEAD COMPOSTING TOILET 

This AirHead diverts urine from solids, allowing the solids 

to dry up and compost in three months. Moreover, the 

composted solids occupy minimal space, and they offer 

agricultural value. 

The liquids divert into a tank that is smaller than the 

solids hatch and placed on the lower front of the AirHead 

to allow easy removal. The urine bottle is compact and 

capable of holding 10 litres so you can go a day or two 

before emptying it. 

This toilet is electric and a 12-volt shroud fan keeps 

sewage smells at bay. A simple, waterless flush plunges the 

deposit into the compact solids hatch, which is spacious 

enough to take 60 comfortable visits. 

Like most modern composting toilets, it is waterless and 

self-contained. Even when gents urinate into the AirHead 

while standing, the solids hatch will trickle the liquids back 

into the front urine bottle. Select between a paper liner in 

the bowl or commissioned coir, which provides a smooth 

carriage when you open the solids hatch for a waterless 

flush. 

ABOUT THE 

AUTHORS 

Practically Green is a 

blog and review site 

created by university 

friends Leo Dickson 

and Jess Taylor. 

Creating content to 

help people live more 

sustainable lifestyles, 

the pair aim to give to 

access to information 

to help more people 

to make more 

sustainable choices. 

www.practically.green 


GLAMPSITES 


Bookings & Partnerships 

Little Massingham 

Estate, Norfolk 

Product: Franchised glamping 

Supplier: Amber's Bell Tents, 

07580 072861, 

ambersbelltents@hotmail.co.uk, 

www.ambersbelltents.co.uk 

Details: On the far reaches of 

North West Norfolk sits Little 

Massingham Estate – 2,000 acres 

of forests and heathland, wild 

ponies and pigs, all playing a part 

in the important rewilding work 

that is happening there. Oak Dell 

is home to seven furnished 5m 

bell tents courtesy of glamping 

franchise, Amber’s Bell Tents. 

Amber and her team use 

their 10 years of experience in 

the glamping industry to help 

franchisees launch successful 

glamping sites. This allows 

landowners with no prior 

experience in the hospitality 

sector to create high end 

glamping opportunities that 

meet with market demand. 

Amber’s Bell Tents highlights 

what can be utilised in each 

location to make the space 

unique and special. Everything 

needed to offer guests a 

comfortable and stylish glamping 

stay is provided, including all 

the thoughtful items that help 

communicate care for guests’ 

wellbeing during their stay. A new 

product line means all franchised 

partners will have access to 

unique branded products to give 

each space its own aesthetic and 

help strengthen brand identity in 

this crowded market. 

Amber’s Bell Tents also draws 

up a plan to get sites ready for 

guests, and provides a team 

to set up in year 1. Behind the 

scenes, the team markets the site 

using its brand, generating sales 

and handling customer support 

until guests arrive on site when 

it’s time for the new partners to 

take over. 

Customer feedback: Oliver 

Birkbeck, owner of Little 

Massingham Estate, said: “I 

have been working with Amber 

and her team since late 2020. I 

manage a large estate in North 

Norfolk, which has lots of 

different enterprises – the main 

one being a re-wilding project. 

I was looking for a way to bring 

people onto the estate very 

lightly, who would enjoy the 

nature and hopefully take some 

of the rewilding ethos away with 

them, while also creating a much 

needed revenue stream. 

“I immediately felt that we 

were on the same page - Amber 

is also passionate about 

creating access to nature and 

wild spaces for people. I felt 

like someone was on my side, 

and that bringing people 

onto the estate to enjoy the 

wildlife was not only viable, 

but would be financially 

beneficial too. Amber’s Bell 

Tents took away all the usual 

bumps in the road that launching 

a business from scratch brings. 

We launched in June last year 

and had a season of happy 

glampers, with the space working 

particularly well for groups. We 

had many a Saturday night of 

people dancing under the trees 

and stars.” 


GLAMPSITES 


Cardross Estate, Sterling 

Service: Partnership providing pods 

and full business services 

Supplier: Further Space, 

07761 747212, 

simon@furtherspace.co.uk, 

www.further.space 

Details: Further Space partnered 

with Cardross Estate in 2020 to bring 

further diversification activities to 

the estate. Overlooking Ben Lomond, 

the site has six 4-star glamping 

accommodation pods. Each pod 

sleeps four people and has its own fire 

pit and outdoor seating area. Cardross 

Estate work with local suppliers to 

provide breakfast, BBQ packs and 

even sustainable charcoal from a local 

social enterprise. 

Further Space brings a completely 

unique business model to the 

glamping market, working with 

landowners to create micro-tourism 

partnerships. It provides luxury 

four berth pods at zero upfront 

cost with partners only needing to 

invest in their site works. This gives 

a significantly lower cost method to 

entry, with a far lower financial risk 

profile. Full support with site layout, 

design, architectural services and the 

planning process is also provided. 

Once the site is open the entire 

customer acquisition process is 

managed, including TV, radio, press 

and digital/social media advertising. A 

booking system, payment processing 

and customer service is provided 

so landowners only need focus on 

customer experience once they arrive 

on site. 

As a partner you are connecting 

with a brand currently building 

a network of sites across Ireland 

and the UK. Partners benefit from 

a level of marketing spend and 

promotion that would be difficult 

to justify individually and receive 

a dedicated relationship manager, 

training materials and support for 

glamping experts. They also benefit 

from a growing base of existing loyal 

customers keen to experience more 

Further Space glamping in new and 

unique locations. 

Customer feedback: Alistair Orr- 

Ewing, owner of Cardross Estate, said: 

“The main challenge for landowners 

is that they have the assets but lack 

the marketing budget and expertise 

to get to scale quickly. We operate the 

site but split the capital investment. 

Further Space helped with getting 

through the planning process, the 

design and layout. We don't have to 

worry about booking systems and 

pre-arrival customer communications, 

we just focus on the customer when 

they arrive. It means I have more time 

to work on the many other projects 

across the estate.” 

Letting the Unusual 

Quality Unearthed - 01348 830922 

letting@qualityunearthed.co.uk 

www.qualityunearthed.co.uk 

Why Choose Quality Unearthed to market your 

glampsite? Simple, we've got proven experience in 

increasing bookings. Employing Quality Unearthed 

gives you immediate access to an existing customer 

database and the benefit of our experience in 

marketing and administration. This frees up your time 

to pursue other projects or concentrate on our site, 

accommodation and guests. 

There are no costs to join us – all photography, 

brochure and marketing costs are included in your 

commission fee so you only pay once we get you 

bookings. We have a skilled in-house development and 

marketing team, allowing us to respond effectively as 

digital marketing evolves. 

We have over 60 years’ experience in cottage and 

glamping holiday letting so get in touch now for a no 

obligation consultation. Whatever stage your project is 

at, we can advise how best to proceed to maximise your 

demand and revenue potential. We specialise in letting 

the unusual! 

Do you Have a One of a Kind Place? 

Unique Hideaways - 01736 230140 

hello@uniquehideaways.com 

www.uniquehideaways.com 

From houseboats docked in private quays to romantic 

clifftop cabins with luxurious hot tubs, Unique 

Hideaways offers a collection of one-of-a-kind places to 

stay in hidden corners across the UK. 

The team at Unique Hideaways works with owners to 

learn everything about their hideaway. From the initial 

idea to the finished piece, and if owners need help from 

the very beginning, we are on hand to advise every step 

of the way. Most of the hideaways are positioned in the 

South West, but Unique Hideaways is now starting to 

spread its magic across Wales and is looking to head 

further afield. 

If you have your own hideaway, a plot of land or even 

a vision that you’d like to explore, please get in touch.

Quality Glamping 

Cabins and BBQ Huts 

Join our dynamic portfolio of 

unique glamping structures 

Visit www.qualityunearthed.co.uk 

or call 01348 830922 

Finman 

Sleeper Cabin 

For all year round bookings, upgrade your bell tent or 

yurt to a Finman Sleeper cabin. Available in 4m, 5m and 

6m diameters. They are assembled on site so perfect 

for hard to reach locations. 

EN-SUITE AVAILABLE • OFF-GRID OR ECO OPTIONS 

BESPOKE SOLUTIONS • FULLY INSULATED AND HEATING OPTIONS 

01389 887205 info@logspan.com www.logspan.com 


GLAMPSITES 

SUPPLIER PROFILE 

MAC Cabins 

Founded mid-pandemic, this timber building company 

champions sustainable tourism 

What does your company do? 

MAC Cabins is a fast-growing timber 

building company based in Devon, 

founded on over 30 years' experience in 

the construction and leisure industries. 

We are proud to be the provider of one of 

the largest selections of timber buildings, 

including log cabins, leisure and holiday 

cabins and glamping pods, in the heart of 

the South West of England. 

To complement the extensive ranges of 

timber buildings, MAC Cabins also offers 

a vast variety of other timber frame and 

modular frame options, providing one of 

the widest selections of timber buildings 

on the market. 

Our post and beam classic range 

continues to be popular. Where multiple 

use is required, accommodation can 

be created over garages or workshops 

providing a space perfect as an annex or 

holiday rental unit that can be tailored to 

suit your exacting requirements. 

For all timber frame styles, MAC Cabins 

works with self-build and custom-build 

projects. Designed and created by 

architects, we help guide developers 

large and small to identify the best way to 

convert vision into reality. 

We continue to expand our vast portfolio 

of designs and build options, allowing 

you to select the perfect combination of 

style, size and price, confident you will 

find the perfect selection to meet your 

growing demands. With every building you 

will receive a structure that has a higher 

standard specification than most other 

comparable products. 

Our potted company history 

MAC Cabins was founded in the middle of 

the 2020 Worldwide Covid-19 pandemic 

by Dirk McFarlane-Aitken to separate 

timber building from his existing property 

renovation and development company. 

In a very short period of time, MAC Cabins 

has come a long way, with a vast variety of 

cabin and timber building designs, partner 

manufacturers and sustainably produced 

products. 

Dirk has combined his experience 

across many areas of the construction 

and property industry with his experience 

working within the leisure and holiday 

sector. All our products are sustainably 

sourced to ensure the ability to continue 

to harvest the world’s finest building 

product, timber. This is not just what we 

do, it’s what we are passionate about! 

Why should a customer get in touch? 

From selecting the buildings of your 

choice, MAC Cabins will support you 

every step of the way. From foundation to 

finance and everything in between. 

MAC Cabins actively supports 

sustainable tourism and all our timber 

products are sustainably and ethically 

produced and manufactured. Dedicated 

holiday accommodation at glampsites 

and other leisure resorts does not 

adversely affect local property markets 

and is good for the tourism industry 

and local economies. We are proud to 

provide the tourism industry with the right 

accommodation for the market. 

Contact us today to be part of the 

positive tourism industry our nation is 

famous for. No enquiry is too large or too 

small. Whether you are looking for one 

building or an entire rental fleet, MAC 

Cabins will offer you the same individual 

service. We supply the buildings and you 

provide the best holiday experience for 

your guests. 

We know that your repeat business 

is reliant on your guests’ experiences. 

It is therefore our aim that your guests 

will come back time after time, with the 

knowledge that your holiday location 

provides the best place to relax, unwind 

and recharge. 

GET IN TOUCH 

MAC Cabins 

0800 999 1564 

help@maccabins.co.uk 

www.maccabins.co.uk 


GLAMPSITES 


Alfresco Dining 

Bunker Down Glamping, 

Oxfordshire 

Product: BBQs, Offset Smoker and fuel 

Supplier: ProSmoke BBQ, 01295 981580, 

sales@prosmokebbq.co.uk, 

www.prosmokebbq.co.uk 

Details: ProSmoke BBQ supplied a full 

outdoor cooking service for the bell 

tents and shepherds hut at Bunker Down 

Glamping, set on the edge of Shenington 

Airfield. The package included PK grill 

BBQs for each guest area plus a communal 

Cactus Jack offset smoker and regular 

charcoal supplies throughout the season. 

Cooking manuals were provided for the 

site owners to distribute to guests. These 

are specific to the grills and give the guests 

confidence to cook different types of food 

while glamping. Charcoal, wood and fire 

starters supplied on pallets allowed the 

site owners to charge for extras without 

having to source them themselves. All 

ProSmoke fuel is restaurant-grade and 

ethically sourced. 

The offset smoker allows the whole site 

to be catered for at unique one-off events. 

ProSmoke provided a training day to the 

site owners, showing them how to slow 

cook large cuts of meat over a real wood 

fire. 

Customer feedback: Bunker Down 

Glamping owner Liz Gibbs said: “Up until 

now, we had guests cooking over fire pits, 

which are just not great for novice outdoor 

cooking; the guests found it very hard to 

control the heat and often burnt their food. 

But with the cookbook and BBQs supplied 

by ProSmoke, guests often made evening 

meals a real event. 

“The PK grills are easy for us to clean 

and we no longer have to replace BBQs 

after each season, as they are so well 

made. The offset smoker was great for 

feeding the whole site, or when we put 

events on, plus it really looks the part 

outside the shepherds hut.” 


GLAMPSITES 


Finman Open BBQ Hut 

Logspan 

01389 734572 

info@logspan.com 

www.logspan.com 

The Finman 

Open BBQ Hut 

is the perfect 

congregating area 

for any glamping 

site. It provides 

alfresco dining away 

from the rain, or just 

somewhere for guests to 

relax in the afternoon. 

Providing more than just a pretty 

picture, the Finman Open BBQ Hut will be an additional 

income source with the ability to rent it out by the hour. 

It comes in four sizes up to 5m in diameter so there will 

be a hut that suits your site. The walls are 45mm thick 

Scandinavian spruce and the floor is 30mm pressure 

treated timber. This is one structure that is built to last 

and will be used year round. 

Kadai Firebowls 

The Log Company 

01748 889298 

www.thelogcompany.com 

READER EXCLUSIVE 

Boutique Camping 

0203 319 1315 

hannah@boutiquecamping.com 

www.boutiquecamping.com 

10 % OFF 

ALL BOUTIQUE 

CAMPING STOVES! 

USE CODE 

‘OPENAIR10’ 

Whilst globally renowned for their exclusive tent designs, Boutique 

Camping’s range of wood burning stoves has quickly established itself 

with the most credible outdoor businesses wanting to broaden and 

brighten their glamping amenities. 

An exclusive design, Boutique Camping’s most coveted wood 

burning stove, the Pizza Oven Plus wowed bidders on crowdfunding 

platform Kickstarter as it effortlessly flaunted its 5-in-1 creative 

cooking integrations, including a pizza oven with a built in cordierite 

baking stone and a removable grill rack which acts as a BBQ 

alternative. 

Delivering unparalleled outdoor experiences by producing alluring 

ambiances and creative cook-offs, the Pizza Oven Plus’s ferocious 

300+°c flames will turn up the heat and be the start, middle and end 

highlight of your guests’ next wild adventure... whether that be in a 

canvas/cotton tent or installed into a shepherds hut! 

Available in 60, 70 and 80cm diameters, Kadai 

firebowls are made from recycled oil drums, 

riveted together using a traditional Indian 

method for strength and durability. 

Packages include wrought iron low and 

high stands, double 4mm steel grills, forged 

tongs and a wire brush. A range of accessories 

are available including a cooking tripod with 

chain, hanging skillet and even a pizza oven. 

Icey-Tek Cool Boxes 

Cool Boxes UK 

01326 555765 

sales@coolboxesuk.com 

www.coolboxesuk.com 

Since 2005, Cool Boxes UK 

has been supplying Icey-Tek 

cool boxes to the glamping 

and camping sector across the 

UK and Europe. Rugged and 

durable, they provide extended 

cooling times of up to 10 days, 

which means food and drink 

will stay fresh for longer without 

electricity. 

Check out the colourful range 

in various sizes as well as the 

‘Plus One Cart’, a strong, salt 

waterproof, all-terrain hand-cart 

that makes light work of even 

the heaviest cool box. 


EVENTS 

CASE STUDY 

Shrewsbury 

Food Festival 

30,000 people celebrating the best of Shropshire food and drink 

We talk to director 

of fun at Shropshire 

Festivals Beth Heath, the 

brains behind a range 

of Shropshire events 

that attract 90,000 to 

the county annually 

including the award 

winning Shrewsbury 

Food Festival. 

Tell us a bit about yourself 

Shropshire Festivals is a family-run 

business belonging to my husband 

Sid and I. I have been working 

in events and the agritourism 

industry my whole working life and 

launched the Shrewsbury Food 

Festival in 2013 to celebrate local 

food and drink producers. I went 

on to launch several more festivals 

under the Shropshire Festivals 

label, including Shropshire 

Oktoberfest, Shropshire Kids 

Festival, Field to Fork Festival 

and Shropshire BizFest, which 

collectively attract over 90,000 

visitors to the region annually. 

I also offer event consultancy 

supporting event businesses, 

coming up with creative ideas to 

boost footfall at local attractions 

and organising corporate events 

from parties to huge conferences. 

Describe your event and how 

many people it attracts? 

The Shrewsbury Food Festival 

has been held annually since 

2013. On the last weekend in 

June, which is always a hot one, 

the festival attracts up to 30,000 

people to the 29 acres of parkland 

in the centre of this picturesque 

town. In the festival’s nine year 

history, it has been voted Best 

Food Festival in the Midlands 

multiple times. 

The event has grown year on 

year and now hosts 200 food, 

drink, home and garden stalls, 

street food vendors, plus beer, 

wine, gin, and fizz bars (this year 

we have banned mainstream 

alcohol brands). Talented chefs 

from the region’s top restaurants 

lead talks, demonstrations and 

cookalongs. There is a live music 

stage hosting top local bands, a 

huge free kids’ zone featuring a 

circus big top, a BBQ competition, 

the Fire Stage and the educational 

Field and Fork area. 

At Shropshire Festivals we 

love providing a platform for 


EVENTS 

the region’s small businesses and 

performers, which in turn provides 

unique experiences for our customers. 

Fun is at the heart of everything we do – 

we want to make people smile and give 

them memories to treasure, and we want 

to do it in an environmentally friendly 

way by making our events zero waste. 

Explain a bit about your venue and 

your history with it 

Most of our festivals are held in the 

Quarry in Shrewsbury. It’s a stunning 

park right in the centre of town that 

sits in the loop of the River Severn. The 

council has a limited number of licenses 

it releases every year to hold events 

there, and we’re proud to have them for 

Shrewsbury Food Festival, Shropshire 

Oktoberfest and Shropshire Party in the 

Quarry Park (our new event launching 

this May). 

Aside from the expanse of space, we 

are served well by the proximity to the 

town centre’s shops, railway and bus 

stations. The park is accessed from more 

than one point, making it convenient for 

our visitors and suppliers. 

What is the event’s history and what 

made you decide to run it? 

I spent eight years as operational 

director at Ludlow Food Festival. 

Shrewsbury is a thriving food-loving 

town, and it felt like there was a big gap 

in the market for a food festival here. 

There is also more space and therefore 

room for an event to grow and evolve. 

My hunch was right! Aside from 2020 in 

the midst of the pandemic, we have held 

a successful Shrewsbury Food Festival 

every year since 2013, with numbers 

growing every year, and attracting some 

top chef names. 

How is your relationship with the local 

authority and community? 

We have a great relationship with the 

local authority and a very loyal following 

in the community. I also chair the 

Shropshire Business Board and Visit 

Shropshire – the region’s destination 

management organisation, which has 

built up my network. 

Our events are a huge boost to 

the local tourism sector with people 

travelling from outside the county, 

and even the country, to visit us – local 

restaurants and hotels get booked out. 

We also give space at our festivals for 

other events to market themselves, 

helping to boost visitor return visits. 

How have you planned the layout of 

the event? 

Years of experience have given me 

a great instinct in how people move 

around a festival. I find it fascinating 

watching people navigate an event, and 

every year I make tweaks to get the 

most out of the space. 

We hire in a huge number of 

marquees and a live music stage, but 

we erect our own tipis (we also 

own Shropshire Tipi Hire) 

“MOST OF OUR 

FESTIVALS ARE 

HELD IN THE 

QUARRY IN 

SHREWSBURY. 

IT’S A 

STUNNING 

PARK RIGHT IN 

THE CENTRE 

OF TOWN THAT 

SITS IN THE 

LOOP OF THE 

RIVER SEVERN” 

which really epitomise the look of our 

events. Add a tipi to any festival and it 

really elevates the look of the site. 

How did you research and source your 

marquees, flooring, bars etc? 

We have worked with Burgoynes and 

Tents and Marquees for a number of 

years and as such they are brilliant at 

offering up new ideas. If you get a good 

relationship with a marquee foreman 

they become invaluable as they have a 

wealth of experience and ideas that they 

have seen work elsewhere! 

We tend not to need flooring as we 

aim for sunshine and grass. For bars we 

take inspiration from Pinterest, good old 

Google and of course Open Air Business 

magazine! 

What entertainment do you offer and 

how did you choose and source it? 

Our aim is to offer something for 

everyone. The foodies will be at 

the Chef Talks and Demos 

stage, trying samples from 

producers or doing a cook 

along with a top chef. 

Families have a huge free 

kids’ zone to enjoy with 

our circus big top, rides, 

STEM activities and lots of 

hands-on experiences like 

trying out a bike, baking, 

crafting, digging in the 

sandpit or playing a giant 

game. 

Adults that like to relax 

with a drink will be at 

the bars or sitting on 

the hill watching 


EVENTS 

the live music stage, and the avid 

shoppers will visit all 200+ exhibitors 

until they drop! We are advocates of 

supporting local so we always reach out 

to our community if we’re looking for 

something new. We’ve built up a brilliant 

network of talent over the years. 

What provisions do you make for 

power, lights and sound? 

We have a nightmare with power costs, 

the same as most people, and have a 

very limited supply onto festival sites 

which we supplement with generators. 

The red diesel ban is a real problem, as 

that is an unbudgeted extra cost that 

is going to really affect our clients and 

visitors as we pass this cost on further 

down the line. 

For lighting and sound, we have 

worked with ProAudio for a number 

of years and they’ve always brought 

excellent solutions to the table. We 

love the projected lighting installations 

we do in the beer tent at Shropshire 

Oktoberfest where we work with artist 

Andy McKeown. They are a much talked 

about dimension. Lighting is often under 

used but we have done some interesting 

venues and the lighting has really 

brought them to life. 

How do you manage admissions and 

visitor safety? 

We now have a bespoke ticketing system 

as the majority of visitors have moved 

to buying tickets in advance online. 

One of our core members of the team, 

Gemma, is dedicated to admissions 

throughout the event – troubleshooting 

issues, heading up customer service 

and ensuring our gates are running 

efficiently. 

Our security team bag searches all 

visitors on entry and we work with an 

external health and safety company, 

Online Safety Solutions, who ensure our 

sites are the safest they can be. 

How did you cope during 2020 and 

2021? 

As we were unable to hold any of 

“FOR 

LIGHTING 

AND SOUND, 

WE HAVE 

WORKED 

WITH 

PROAUDIO 

FOR A 

NUMBER OF 

YEARS AND 

THEY’VE 

ALWAYS 

BROUGHT 

EXCELLENT 

SOLUTIONS 

TO THE 

TABLE” 

our Shropshire Festivals in 2020, we 

launched the Shropshire Drive-in. We 

organised seven separate drive-in 

events with comedy, live music and 

performance, with visitors each getting 

their own area to safely park up and 

enjoy a show. 

Within a month of conceiving the 

idea we had launched the tickets on a 

brand new website and about a month 

later we were standing in the middle of 

a grassy field at the first sold out event. 

We entertained over 8,000 people during 

July 2020! The events were covered by 

every local news outlet, featured in The 

Telegraph and Metro, and even recorded 

and broadcast on BBC Breakfast! 

We also launched a new hamper 

business during the pandemic. 

There are hundreds of small local 

food and drink businesses that have 

been unable to exhibit at our annual 

festivals, so we decided to bring those 

businesses together in a brand-new way, 

diversifying to launch the Shropshire 

Hamper Company, and the response was 

amazing! In fact, our suppliers reported 

selling more through the hampers 

than they normally would at our food 

festival. We will continue to run the 

hamper business, which keeps us busy in 

between events. 

In December 2020 we were behind 

what could have been the biggest 

national event of the year – Carols on the 

Doorstep! Our idea to get the people of 

Shropshire singing carols in unison went 

national, with BBC radio stations signing 

up to broadcast the backing music. We 

were filmed for BBC Breakfast and the 

One Show. It was incredible to unite 

isolated communities across towns and 

rural areas to spread some festive cheer. 

We held Doorstep Carols for a second 

year last Christmas, uniting the nation 

in song. We simultaneously had people 

singing from choirs in Trafalgar Square to 

Great Ormond Street Hospital and from 

cathedrals to street parties, all in the 

name of boosting community spirit and 

combatting social isolation. 

The government’s Culture Recovery 

Fund enabled us to plan and hold 

Shrewsbury Food Festival in 2021, albeit 

three months later than usual. 

What ground protection do you use for 

cars and footfall? 

We don’t need ground protection 

for Shrewsbury Food Festival as the 

weather is always great. For Shropshire 

Oktoberfest we have a real problem as 

it always rains, so we now own our own 

ground matting to combat this cost and 

also to limit the damage done by the 

cherry pickers as they hang the lights etc. 

How do you publicise the event? 

We have our own in-house marketing 

team – Shropshire ThinkTank. They 

market with a mix of social media, email 

marketing and press work. We have 

promotional leaflets distributed to high 

footfall areas throughout the year and 

hang banners and signs around the town 

ahead of the event. 

What additional challenges have you 

faced? 

We have the same challenges as 

everyone else – navigating through Covid 

and incurring bigger costs on everything, 

which we will have to pass on to visitors 

who are battling a cost-of-living crisis 

themselves. It hasn’t been an easy 

couple of years! 

How have you financed the event? 

We have sponsorship packages for every 

event – from sponsoring our re-usable 

beer cups through to the main stage. I 

wholeheartedly believe it is an incredible 

way to boost brand awareness and 

reposition how consumers view brands. 

We are always open to sponsorship 

requests! 

What are your plans for next year? 

We will be holding events throughout 

the year – Shropshire Kids Festival, 

Shropshire Tasty Trail (our walk and 

eat event), Shropshire Party at the 

Quarry Park, Shrewsbury Food Festival, 

Shropshire Oktoberfest and a host of

EVENTS 

ADDRESS BOOK 

corporate events. We are also consulting 

on some amazing projects – follow 

Shropshire Festivals on Facebook and 

Instagram to keep up to date! 

What advice could you give to 

someone coming into the outdoor 

event industry? 

It’s not for everyone as it’s incredibly 

physically and mentally demanding, 

but when the sun is shining and you 

have 30,000 happy visitors eating and 

drinking from small local food and 

drink producers and making amazing 

memories, it makes it all worthwhile. It 

is also very different from smaller indoor 

events; it might seem obvious but if 

you’re used to running indoor weddings 

then be warned this is a very different 

ball game! 

MARQUEES 

Burgoynes 

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Jacksons 

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Shropshire Tipi Hire 

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Tents and Marquees 

www.tentsandmarquees.com 

STAGES 

ProAudio Services 

www.proaudioservices.co.uk 

LIGHTING 

Andy McKeown, Wild Strawberry 

www.wildstrawberry.com 

HEAT & POWER 

Barry Hamer Electricians 

Cool Services 

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TOILETS 

Space Mobiles 

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Wrekin Conveniences 

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SECURITY 

Online Safety Solutions 

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ProSecure www.pro-secureltd.co.uk 

INSURANCE 

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Henshalls www.henshalls.com 

DETAILS 

25-26 June 

Quarry Park 

Shrewsbury 

Shropshire SY1 1JA 

www.shrewsburyfoodfestival.co.uk 

Create a Greener Event 

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EVENTS 

Total Immersion 

AGB Events’ creative director Anthony Bastic on the power of immersive events 

Parrtjima 

ELEVATE SkyShow 

featured 550 drones over 

Sydney Cove 


EVENTS 

What is an immersive event? 

For us an immersive event is 

something that you lose yourself in; it’s 

engaging and emotive and has a strong 

narrative. The story is the driver and 

designing content that tells the story in 

a captivating and memorable way is the 

key element. 

At AGB Events we love combining bold 

ideas and technology. I love the concept 

of lighting as it’s very accessible. It 

overcomes language and physical barriers 

and can bring art and culture 

to life. 

How are organisers, brands and educators 

making use of immersive events? 

Consumers today are more sophisticated and 

their expectations around stimulation are 

changing. Technology has had a huge impact 

on communication and has really opened 

up the ability to expand reach and influence 

people. 

Technology allows us to access and 

exploit a narrative. A narrative, done well, 

is something that engages people; it affects 

them and they remember it. Organisations 

see the value in that! 

Today, events are using a lot more 

technology – there’s a huge rise in visual 

content, particularly augmented reality 

(AR). At our 2021 ELEVATE SkyShow (a show 

featuring 550 drones over Sydney Cove) we 

also added an AR element. 

Audiences are becoming much more 

attuned and familiar with technology, 

especially given the recent experiences 

of the pandemic. It is now second nature 

to download an app, scan a QR code etc. 

technology has become more prevalent 

and we’re utilising that evolution to build 

multiple layers into event experiences; it’s 

really exciting. 

Why are immersive events so powerful? 

Because they’re accessible… worldwide. 

MATTHEW ANDREWS 

FROM LEFT Lumiere Festival and Parrtjima 

Even though the world shut its borders with 

the Covid pandemic, technology enabled us 

access. We were able to use technology to 

visit galleries in other parts of the world while 

never leaving our lounge. The reach now is 

so broad and we’ve become acclimatised 

to not attending but participating through 

technology. 

It’s adding a new perspective to event 

concepts and development. It’s hard to 

get your head around when you’re doing 

something in the public realm, it has 

longevity and it can travel. 

Storytelling – how does it inspire change 

and connection? 

People are curious. They’re invested in 

stories, especially about other people’s lives 

and cultures. Experiences can change you 

and our events have always been about 

creating memorable experiences. By adding 

new perspective to event concepts and 

development, technology has allowed us to 

tell stories in different ways – through visual 

content, lighting, drones and AR. 

EXAMPLES 

Lumiere Festival (UK) 

Lumiere invites local and international artists 

to produce large scale artworks and events. 

Launched in 2009 in Durham, it is now home 

to 270 installations and has expanded to 

Parrtjima 

include Lumiere Derry (2013) and Lumiere 

London (2016 and 2018). 

www.lumiere-festival.com 

Beauty Rich and Rare (travelling) 

Commissioned by the National Library of 

Australia, Beauty Rich and Rare was the 

first Australian exhibition to appear at 

the National Museum for Natural History 

(Smithsonian) in the US. 

It comprises six screens (65 feet long), six 

laser projectors and has gorgeous imagery 

illustrating the wonder and excitement of Sir 

Joseph Banks and his team as they made the 

first collection and recording of Australia’s 

unique flora and fauna. www.naturalhistory. 

si.edu/exhibits/beauty-rich-and-rare 

Parrtjima (Australia) 

A Festival in Light, Mparntwe 

Parrtjima is the only authentic Aboriginal 

light festival of its kind, showcasing the 

oldest continuous culture on earth through 

the newest technology – all on the 300 

million-year-old natural canvas of the 

MacDonnell Ranges in Central Australia. 

The ‘Grounded’ installation is of particular 

note. Visitors wander through an animated 

sequence of curated Aboriginal artwork 

projected onto the red sands of the desert 

park. www.parrtjimaaustralia.com.au 


Australian-based Anthony 

Bastic is CEO and creative 

producer at AGB Events. AGB 

specialises in creating public 

celebrations, iconic events and 

innovative digital experiences. 

Founded in 2006, AGB Events has 

conceptualised and produced events and 

exhibitions across Australia, Asia, Europe and 

the United States. 

Anthony’s ingenuity has been well 

recognised by his appointments as creative 

director for many international events 

including the Sydney Invictus Games 

Opening Ceremony (2018), the Melbourne 

Commonwealth Games (2006), the Rugby 

World Cup (2003), Melbourne’s New Year’s 

Eve celebrations and the Sydney Olympic & 

Paralympic Games Live Sites (2000). 

www.agb.events 


MAKE YOUR GUESTS AS SAFE AS THEY CAN 

BE WITH OUR COMPLETE SERVICE OFFERING. 

CROWD SAFETY 

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01295 722844 

WWW.NEWMANEVENTS.CO.UK 


EVENTS 

GETTY IMAGES 

INDUSTRY COMMENT 

Seeing Red 

Chairman of the Events Industry Forum, Steve Heap, on the banning of red diesel for events 

IN THIS spring’s budget the chancellor had 

the opportunity to make a difference the 

outdoor events industry. 5p off the fuel tax 

(yet to be confirmed that it will apply to 

white diesel and biofuels) does not make 

enough difference to really help us. 

So, whilst we recognise that the 

government announced the banning of 

red diesel for festival sites two years ago it 

didn’t actually hit home at the time and so 

is coming as a bit of a shock to an already 

dented industry. 

With over 20% rises in equipment 

costs recovering from two years off 

for Covid, no pandemic insurance (HM 

government proposal not fit for purpose), 

staff shortages due to Brexit and now a 

doubling of costs for power to our stages, 

“OTHER PARTS OF THE 

BUDGET DID NOTHING FOR 

THE FESTIVAL SCENE, OTHER 

THAN CONFIRM IT IS GOING 

TO BE A TOUGH YEAR WITH 

PEOPLE’S DISPOSABLE 

INCOME STRETCHED TO THE 

LIMITS” 

2022 will not be the year of recovery we 

had hoped for but will be the toughest 

year as all the above is being paid from a 

2019 ticket price revenue carried over for 

most festivals. 

The VAT holiday is finished. We fought 

for 5%, then 12.5% and we continue 

to fight to keep it down low, but the 

chancellor has put it back to 20%. 

We were very willing to work with the 

government on reducing our carbon 

footprint, and still are, and gradually we 

will switch to renewable and alternative 

energies, but now the chancellor has taxed 

those as well, up to the same level as white 

diesel. 

Generator companies are all cleaning 

out their tanks to switch to white diesel 

so campaigning for an extension to red 

diesel is not much use, and it doesn’t meet 

our industry’s commitment to carbon 

reduction by 2025 (see Vision2025 report). 

Other parts of the budget did nothing 


EVENTS 

for the festival scene, other than confirm 

it is going to be a tough year with people’s 

disposable income stretched to the limits. 

The sun is shining, the music is ready, all 

we need now is customers who can afford 

to come. Mr Sunak will be hearing from us 

again... 

I would suggest that readers join with 

many others in the events industry and write 

to the chancellor, inviting him to join with us 

to meet government climate change targets. 

He can help us do this by taking fuel duty off 

biofuels and alternatives as well as taking off 

the VAT. This would help our industry in this 

recovery year and give us a chance to get 

fuels sorted without further 2022 expenses. 

From the 

HAE EHA 

Changes to the law concerning the 

use of red diesel came into effect 

on 1 April, affecting thousands of 

hire companies across the UK. Hire 

Association Europe and Event Hire 

Association (HAE EHA) is urging its 

members and the wider hire industry 

to ensure they are fully aware of the 

changes to avoid finding themselves 

on the wrong side of the law. 

Previously, rebated gas oil (red 

diesel) and rebated biofuels could 

be legally used for any machine 

which is not a road vehicle eg. 

mobile generators. From 1 April, this 

entitlement was removed for all but a 

handful of specific sectors, including 

farming, forestry and communitybased 

landscaping such as hedge and 

verge cutting. Any individual found 

guilty of breaching the new regulations 

may be subject to criminal sanctions 

and fines, and HMRC can also seize 

vehicles and machines found to be 

running unlawfully on red diesel. 

There is no requirement to flush out 

engines, and any rebated fuel still in 

tanks can be used up after 1 April, so 

long as it can be proved that it was 

put into the vehicle or machine legally 

prior to the changeover date. 

HAE EHA has taken a number of 

actions including creating revised 

terms and conditions of hire and 

putting in place training and general 

guidance. Anyone who would like to 

know more about how the changes in 

regulations might affect them can get 

in touch with HAE EHA on 0121 380 

4600. 

Yet 

More 

Cost 

Rob Chapman, director of Craft in Focus which runs 

some of the country’s largest craft and design fairs, 

illustrates the cost implications of banning red diesel 

AS THE organiser of some of the 

country’s largest craft and design 

fairs we are very concerned about the 

government’s decision to prohibit the 

use of red diesel at events. 

Over the last two years the event 

industry has been among the hardest 

hit. We all understand the need to cut 

greenhouse gases, and the removal of 

use of red diesel is being billed as a way 

forward to encourage greener options 

and reduce the use of fuel. But what are 

the alternatives? As yet, there are none 

that are cost effective, so our running 

costs will just have to increase. 

All our events require diesel 

generators to provide power, but 

even with the change to low energy 

equipment, the amount of fuel used 

is still significant. The removal of red 

diesel for generators will increase our 

costs by around £800 or so for most 

summer based events. The problem 

really hits hardest at our winter events 

where our heating units have been 

fuelled by red diesel. Three years ago at 

our November fair (our largest event) 

we had almost daily fuel deliveries as 

the heating used over 10,000 litres of 

fuel. If we had not had access to red 

diesel the increase would have been 

around £4,500. 

We could change to Kerosene for the 

heating, which is cheaper than white 

diesel, but would require separate 

storage and delivery as we still need 

diesel for the generators. The extra 

delivery and storage adds more cost 

again. If we use white diesel then we 

will also have to increase security as 

keeping the fuel on site is likely to 

attract unwanted attention, so yet more 

costs. 

As with most companies we are 

already running to tight budgets, but 

this addition makes a huge impact to 

the viability of our autumn and winter 

events. Yet again the events industry 

is being hit by lack of government 

thought. 

GETTY IMAGES 


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EVENTS 


Event Structures 

National Strategy 

for Economic 

Development, 

Dundee 

Product: Staging, backdrops 

and visitor seating 

Supplier: QUICKBLOCK, 0141 

478 0365, info@quickblock.uk, 

www.quickblock.uk 

Details: The Scottish 

government was launching 

its National Strategy for 

Economic Development and 

QUICKBLOCK was chosen to 

provide some of the event 

infrastructure. 

Businesses are being 

challenged to be more 

sustainable and are 

tasked with looking at the 

environmental impact of 

events and how to reduce 

it. The fact QUICKBLOCK is 

made from 100% recycled 

plastic, which otherwise would 

contribute to landfill or ocean 

waste, was a major factor in 

the procurement process and 

final decision. 

The versatility and speed 

in which you can assemble, 

reconfigure and disassemble 

QUICKBLOCK allowed the 

contractors to spend more 

time on problem areas and 

less time on erecting the event 

infrastructure as there was no 

requirement for special tools 

or construction skills. 

Due to it’s innovative, 

modular design, the solutions 

available are endless. For 

this event, QUICKBLOCK’s 

Main Stage, Visitor Seating 

and Location Backdrops were 

chosen, all of which were 

assembled in less than one 

and a half hours. 

The 4.8m x 2m stage with 

wooden platform was built in 

20 minutes. The platform was 

then carpeted to provide a 

clean, professional finish. 

The event required enough 

seating for a minimum of 50 

visitors. 10 corner sofas and 

10 benches, which included 

all-weather seat pads, were 

assembled in 45 minutes. 

Backdrops were used to 

create areas for people to 

meet, as part of the shell 

scheme infrastructure and as 

cordons to stop people from 

entering restricted areas. Two 

contractors erected these 

backdrops in 25 minutes 

having had no previous 

experience using the product. 

Customer feedback: 

Marketing and 

communications director Gill 

Simpson said: “We absolutely 

love the QUICKBLOCK 

product and it reflects our 

business values perfectly. Its 

flexibility means we can use 

it at our varying events, and 

it is always a huge talking 

point that makes our space 

stand out from the crowd. 

The QUICKBLOCK team are 

the friendliest and most hard 

working we have come across, 

and whenever we work with 

them it simply feels like they 

are an extension of our own 

team. I couldn’t recommend 

QUICKBLOCK more!” 


EVENTS 

Glastonbury Festival, 

Somerset 

Product: Marquees, solar power and 

production 

Supplier: Selene Events, 07778 765724, 

sh@seleneevents.com, 

www.seleneevents.com 

Details: One event that Selene Events 

frequent is Glastonbury Festival where the 

round little big top was first put up in the 

only Green Field in 1986. Now the festival 

has grown to the size of a pop up city, the 

Green Fields are eight separate areas, of 

which Selene Events runs one; known 

as the Croissant Neuf field, it is all about 

sustainability. 

The four pole big top, accommodating 

1,000 people complete with stage, PA tower 

and seating, is entirely run from solar 

power, as pioneered at the festival 33 years 

ago! The matching smaller marquees make 

a backstage area and artistes’ green room, 

and others are used by exhibitors in the 

main arena. 

Among the trials and tribulations of 

putting up marquees and running outdoor 

events is the weather and being exposed to 

the ever changing elements. Glastonbury 

Festival is no exception, being famously 

known for mud. Wind has not been a 

problem as the marquees stand up to 

pretty hefty gusts, sun is only a problem 

when the ground turns to dust and 

sticks to the tents, and of course rain is a 

problem when the ground, trodden on by 

many thousands of people, turns to mud, 

mud, glorious mud, which then has to be 

cleaned off meticulously so the structures 

are sparkling clean and fresh for the next 

event. 

With a wealth of experience in the 

festival, wedding, private parties, 

educational and corporate fields, Selene 

Events tailors a customer’s special 

requirements to suit all event needs, 

offering anything from a beautiful single 

marquee of a chosen size to a fully themed 

event. 

Customer feedback: Michael Eavis, 

Glastonbury Festival founder and 

organiser, said: “Selene Events runs a 

tight ship and has been an integral and 

respected part of the festival family since 

the eighties. Their Croissant Neuf venue 

has its roots firmly stuck in the mud at the 

Green Field’s entrance. It’s been around for 

over 30 years and has set the tone of those 

fields and will continue to do so forever.” 

BBC Proms, Hull 

Product: 15x20m stretch tent 

Supplier: Tentickle Stretch Tents UK, 07826 843099, 

info@tentickle-stretchtents.co.uk, 

www.tentickle-stretchtents.co.uk 

Details: Tentickle Stretch Tents was asked to provide 

a stage cover for the BBC Proms in Hull. With very 

strict compliance needs, Tentickle provided all health 

and safety documents, risk assessments and weather 

monitoring. The wind is an extremely important factor for 

any type of temporary structure. A combination of wind 

forecasting services and on-site wind meters were used 

to determine the suitability of installing a stretch tent – 

safety is paramount and overrides any client wishes. 

With everything in place for a safe installation the 

stretch tent was installed ready for the Proms. The 

professional crew installed the 15x20m stage cover in 

four hours. Once fully installed the orchestra was allowed 

to enter the tent and set up ready for the Proms. The 

event was a huge success and was broadcast live on BBC 

Radio 3. 


EVENTS 


Marquees and Colourful Big Tops 

Meerkat Marquees 

07966 402696 

info@meerkatmarquees.co.uk 

www.meerkatmarquees.com 

Offering traditional marquee and colourful big top hire, 

Meerkat Marquees’ versatile range caters for any event need. 

With 30 years’ experience, the company is well respected and 

enthusiastic about making large scale events and private parties 

happen without a hitch. 

Check out The Big Red, a real circus tent with standing 

capacity of 1,600 or around 500 seated at round tables. It has 13 

foot side walls and a four king pole truss with 20 foot cupola. 

Zero Waste Flexible Event Structures 


0845 299 6499 



The MESR-Technic structure from CORE 

Bar and Event Hire takes advantage of 

the extensive benefits of carbon fibre and 

carbon fibre composite materials. Create 

structures for almost any outdoor or even 

indoor event, with multiple levels and 

numerous shapes and configurations. 

Infinite flexibility means endless 

possibilities. These structures are 

modular and adaptable, light enough 

to be transported and assembled by a 

small team, yet strong enough to provide 

a festival stand or community space for 

those events that need it most. Fully 

assembled within a few hours, MESR- 

Technic provides quick and safe solutions 

with a zero waste philosophy. 

Elegant Stretch Tents 

Alternative Stretch Tents 

01920 830256 

info@alternative-stretch.co.uk 

www.alternative-stretch-tents.co.uk 

Alternative Stretch Tents hire elegant 

stretch tents for a huge variation of 

events across the UK. From brand 

activations to festivals to funerals. 

Whether it’s blending into the natural 

surroundings or making a statement 

through certain rigging techniques, we 

truly believe the 'stretch tent' can suit 

and add that lasting impression to any 

event. 

Now specialising in long term 

installs, purchases and custom size 

tents, we pride ourselves on great 

Master Craftsmen and 

Marquee Hire 

Top Cat Big Tops 

01654 700030 

info@topcatbigtops.co.uk 

www.topcatbigtops.co.uk 

customer service, advice and long term 

support. 

Spanning festival stages, bending 

around that awkward tree or spanning 

a water feature, if it’s for hire or 

purchase, years of rigging experience 

make almost any space possible! 

Top Cat Big Tops has been 

going for a few years, directed 

by Rob Sage (formally of 

Roustabout). We are both 

a colourful marquee hire 

company as well as master craftsmen, manufacturing marquees 

with expertise and love in our workshop. One of our private commissions was 

featured on a Channel Four show where the proprietor rigged it himself in his 

Chateau grounds, next to his Orangery! We concentrate on manufacturing over 

the winter months with our core local crew, expanding the crew during the hiring 

festival months. Our clients vary widely, from the well-known festivals, smaller 

niche ones, corporate dos as well as funky weddings and private parties. 


Spot light 

A roundup of products for the outdoor hospitality industry 

SAFE, SECURE, SUCCESSFUL 

WEDDINGS 

Newman Event Services 

01295 722844 

enquiries@newmanevents.co.uk 

www.newmanevents.co.uk 

Nothing is left to chance when you 

book Newman Event Services’ 

Glamping Wedding Package. 

A trusted supplier of crowd 

management and event safety 

solutions, we offer bespoke 

services, adapting to your needs 

to give you the personal touch on 

the big day. Whether you require 

notable security on site or a less 

conspicuous presence, NES tailor 

the day to the client and venue. 

From traffic management, security, 

admissions to and from the site, 

cloakroom stewards, 

even organising when the music 

gets turned off; the expertise of 

our highly-trained staff will help 

you deliver a safe, secure and 

successful event. 

BEAUTIFUL LOG BUILDINGS 

Scandinavian Homes 

0845 299 6337 

info@scandinavianhomes.com 

www.scandinavianhomes.com/selfbuild-holiday-homes 

Will holidays ever be the same? 

With more and more people 

deciding that the UK has so much 

to offer, they want to holiday 

nearer to home. So create luxurious 

holiday accommodation for them 

with a beautiful log holiday home. 

Easily customised, these can be 

designed specifically to suit your 

target market. 

With typical British weather, 

a warm, welcoming, genuine 

log holiday home will help you 

generate year round income. You’ll 

be able to provide holidays that 

your customers will remember, 

and book again and again. Contact 

us today to discuss your holiday 

home, mobile home, café, event 

space, or other log building plans. 

PERFO GROUND REINFORCEMENT 

SYSTEM 

S2T Group 

01992 522797 

www.perfo.co.uk 

S2T Group’s PERFO range of ground 

protection products comprises 

a system of interlocking, selfanchoring 

permeable plastic 

tiles which are embedded into an 

existing surface, eg. a mature grass 

area or prepared base consisting of 

a layer of crushed stone chippings, 

depending on the application. 

A number of light to heavy duty 

solutions are available to suit 

varied ground conditions, traffic 

profiles and loading requirements. 

Unlike other geogrid systems, 

PERFO tiles are usually installed 

without the need for excavation, 

being compacted directly into the 

existing surface using rollers or 

compactor plates. Installation is 

therefore rapid and planning issues 

less problematic. 

ADDING VALUE TO VENUES AND 

HOTELS 

Blackdown Shepherd Huts 

01460 929774 

info@blackdownshepherdhuts.co.uk 

www.blackdownshepherdhuts.co.uk 

Hotels and wedding venues, by 

their very nature, often have the 

potential to add a glamping stay 

space to their grounds offering the 

chance to add value to previously 

under-utilised land with minimal 

disruption to pre-booked events 

during the install. 

Blackdown Shepherd Huts 

have proven expertise in this 

area and were delighted to be 

the provider of choice for last 

issue's entrepreneur's chat 

feature, Wellington Barn. Its three 

shepherd huts offer super comfy 

accommodation for guests who 

want to stay at the venue, as well 

as an additional line of income for 

the business. 


R 

EVENTS 

Classified Directory 

TWO-WAY RADIO 

SUPPORTING 

YOUR EVENTS 

Call FREE: 

0800 043 2688 

sales@dcrs.co.uk 

www.dcrs.co.uk 

DCRS Open Air Magazine Classified Advert.indd 1 06/12/2018 09:36 

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C RE® 

BAR& EVENTHIRE 

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tensile fabric structures • standard and bespoke 

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Advert - small.indd 1 16/04/2021 16:04:43 


PEOPLE 

Behind the Scenes with… 

Susie Reid 

Thomas 

Behind the scenes with Susie Reid Thomas, founder 

and creative director of Twilight Trees 

MY ROLE is incredibly varied which I 

absolutely love. I am a creative by nature 

and that’s what makes my heart sing but 

I am also an inherent entrepreneur (or 

en‘tree’preneur as we like to call it). Ideas 

spill out of my brain 24 hours a day (I don’t 

get to sleep much) but I also live off the thrill 

of seeing an idea turn into reality. 

I started Twilight Trees eight years ago 

and have literally lived and breathed it all 

the way through – or held my breath as may 

have been the case over the past couple of 

years. I am lucky enough that I have been 

able to build an incredible team of people 

with such an intricate set of skills and we 

very much work on an even playing field. 

We work hard, play hard and are all in this 

business together. 

When I first started the business I did so 

instinctively and nothing much has changed 

there. I still lead with my heart and I really 

do think that people bought trees from me 

at the beginning because they could see my 

genuine passion for the product. These days 

we are a bigger team and there is strategy 

in place but I am fortunate enough to have 

creative freedom and I genuinely believe in 

every product that leaves this warehouse. 

If we don’t love it, we don’t sell it, it’s as 

simple as that. 

Twilight Trees started off as LED cherry 

trees sales but demand quickly grew for 

rentals. One thing led to the next and before 

I knew it I had trees stretching the 180 metre 

length of Mayfair’s Burlington Arcade! That 

was my ‘pinch me’ moment. We had to 

create a tree specifically for that project and 

that’s where our collections began. We now 

have a huge variety of trees from LEDs to 

florals, trees with green leaves to trees in 

metallics. 

We are huge innovators and have taken 

great pride in being able to bring a large 

amount of our production in-house, which 

is a rarity these days. It also helps us to 

achieve our sustainability aims which 

is something we are constantly striving 

towards. We are a carbon neutral business 

and are involved with tree planting schemes 

across the UK and in the Amazon but we are 

constantly working to better ourselves when 

it comes to our environmental impact. 

After seven years working from my spare 

room, it was with great pride that we were 

finally able to make the move to our new 

premises in October 2021. Twilight Trees 

now occupies a 6,000 square foot unit 

just outside Winchester. The building is a 

former cattle shed which, when we took 

over the lease, had no running water and 

rough concrete flooring. Being the ‘masters 

of transformation’ we now have a huge 

warehouse which includes a workshop area, 

picking racks and ‘Bentley’ our treasured 

fork-lift! 

We have a large communal kitchen which 

doubles up as a reception area and hotdesking 

zone. ‘The Boardroom’ is rather 

beautiful; I wanted it to have a home from 

home feeling so that we are always reminded 

of our kitchen table roots. My inspiration 

was to make it feel like a fun dinner party so 

the walls are decked out in olive green and 

the room adorned with palm trees, mirrors 

and a large table handcrafted from scorched 

scaffolding boards. The office itself is kitted 

out with bespoke living walls and inspiration 

boards and is the perfect space for creativity 

to thrive alongside the more administrative 

parts of business. And last but not least, the 

showroom… 

We dreamt of a showroom for so long. 

We have walls for all seasons, an array of

PEOPLE 

LED trees and a Grande TIG tree with an 

upholstered bench seat that wraps around 

its base. There is a sample wall that shows 

our clients the array of different florals and 

foliage that we can create from as well as 

rows of racking that contain everything from 

Christmas baubles to reclaimed tree trunks 

salvaged from local storms. The pièce de 

résistance is the eight metre bespoke living 

wall which is branded with the Twilight Trees 

logo so that there is no mistake as to which 

wonderland you have fallen down the rabbit 

hole into! 

THE KETTLE’S ALWAYS ON… 

I hope I’ve painted the picture for you but 

there’s really nothing better than coming to 

visit us yourself. The Twilight Trees doors 

are always open and we are encouraging 

friends, colleagues and clients to give us a 

ring and make an appointment; the kettle is 

always on and the wine is always cold… 

No day at Twilight Trees is the same but 

if I’m in the office I do try to stick to some 

sort of routine. School drop off is the first 

thing on the list but after that I always try 

to start the day with some exercise to focus 

the mind and get the blood going. We are 

lucky enough to be on the edge of the South 

Downs National Park and the office and 

home are four miles from each other so on 

go the trainers! Of course, even during a run 

I can’t escape my mind so I’ve mastered the 

art of leaving myself voice notes which I go 

through the second I get to the office. 

If it’s a Monday we all sit down at our 

boardroom table (including Vinnie our office 

cockapoo) and catch up on the weekend’s 

events. The weekend is when Twilight Trees 

is at its busiest and so it’s great to be able to 

sit down with the whole team and debrief. 

We’ll also catch up on how the business as 

a whole is moving forward, get updated on 

what is being created in the workshop, what 

the marketing department have planned 

and the volume of enquiries that the events 

team are working with. It’s busy, buzzy and 

coffee fueled but the room is often bursting 

“NO DAY AT TWILIGHT TREES 

IS THE SAME BUT IF I’M IN 

THE OFFICE I DO TRY TO 

STICK TO SOME SORT OF 

ROUTINE” 

with ideas and creativity. We have such 

special people working at Twilight Trees and 

that’s probably the thing I’m most proud 

of, my team. Twilight Trees is in reality a 

very nuanced business and the balance is 

something I work hard to achieve; I really 

think this meeting along with many other 

elements, is instrumental in creating it. 

After the meeting I catch up with the 

marketing team, we review our Instagram 

engagement, any promotional events we 

have planned, press we are communicating 

with and any brand partnerships. This week 

I have a big radio interview coming up so 

we’ve been working on a plan of action for 

that. 

The rest of the day really is varied. I’m 

often at my computer working on proposals 

for bespoke projects. This was an area of 

the business that was given the space to 

grow during the pandemic and I am now 

confident that our professionalism and skills 

are on a par with the best in the business. 

Last week we completed a bespoke 

installation for the premises of a huge 

advertising company in the midlands. It was 

a huge project that spanned 28,000 square 

feet and had been six months in the making. 

It was incredibly gratifying to see it all come 

together and the client was overwhelmed by 

the result. 

If I’m not in the office I’m out in the 

workshop, overalls on and creating! I spent 

five years at Central Saint Martins College 

of Art and being hands on really is where I 

feel most at home. I have a background in 

sculpture and previously made my living 

selling sculptures made from cow horns. I’ve 

always seen the trees as art forms, they have 

infinite sculptural qualities and bring both 

aesthetics and an ethereal atmosphere to a 

space; I am so lucky to be able to work with 

them. 

We have also been fortunate enough to 

be able to start including elements of travel 

into our design inspiration process and 

we have just returned from a research trip 

to Paris. I cannot overstate the wealth of 

inspiration we gained from this trip. From 

the shop displays, to the brand typography 

and the landscape itself, being immersed 

in a different culture was invaluable. I think 

the lockdowns made us forget the true 

value of embracing culture in person. It’s so 

wonderful to have it back and to witness the 

impact it has on our work. 

Back at Twilight Trees HQ, we often work 

well past home time but we’ll crack open 

the wine, pump up the music and let the 

creativity flow. That is another reason why I 

love the Twilight Trees culture, whether it’s 

bringing your family to the office to paint the 

new office walls at the weekend or working 

through the night to get the job done, it’s 

the spirit of the team that really really gives 

Twilight Trees its sparkle, and I’m delighted 

to say it only gets brighter! 

ABOUT SUSIE 

Founder and creative director, Susie Reid 

Thomas, started Twilight Trees in 2014 while 

raising two small children. Twilight Trees 

started off as an LED tree company and is 

now one of the leading innovators in biophilic 

bespoke installations and artificial tree rentals. 

Susie, together with her husband Andrew, 

has grown Twilight Trees from a kitchen table 

start-up into a cutting edge business with a 

dedicated and specialised team. 

DETAILS 

Twilight Trees 

01962 877644 

info@twilight-trees.com 

www.twilight-trees.com 


COMING 

SOON 

n Industry news 

n Market trends 

n Movers and shakers 

n Opinions and comment 

n Architecture and design 

n In depth case studies 

n Products in focus 

ISSUE ONE 

SPRING 2022 

PRIVATE 

EQUITY 

INVESTMENT 

Luxury Outdoors 

The explosion of 

boutique retreats 

Resort & Retreat is Open Air Business's new sister 

title created for the high-end boutique retreat and 

larger scale resort businesses in the blossoming 

back to nature leisure and wellness industries. 

PLUS: DESIGNING 

IN THE X-FACTOR 

LANDAL 

BARNSOUL 

Landal GreenParks rewrites 

the holiday park blueprint 

Don't miss out - subscribe at www.resortandretreat.com/subscribe

Take advantage of the growth in staycations and construct a luxury log holiday home. 

Spacious, warm, welcoming and beautiful, a genuine log holiday home will generate year round income. 

You’ll be able to provide holidays that your customers will remember, and book again and again. 

0845 299 6337 / INFO@SCANDINAVIANHOMES.COM 

WWW.SCANDINAVIANHOMES.COM/SELF-BUILD-HOLIDAY-HOMES

March/April 2022

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