A tented event tests planning capabilities

An event on a school’s campus put the planning capabilities of Elite Tents and Events to the test.

A Jewish school academy near Baltimore, Md., broke ground in February for a new school building on its existing property, and it turned to Elite Tents and Events, Sykesville, Md., to provide some massive tenting for the event.

The challenge for this event came in the planning stage. The school needed tenting large enough to accommodate cathedral-style seating for 1,500 people. But at the site survey, it became clear that there was no area on the property where tents large enough for that much seating could be easily installed.

The first option Elite considered was a parking lot with light poles and an elevated embankment. Elite designed a combination of tents that could have worked around the obstacles. But the client was unsure about the design, so Elite explored the tenting possibilities for another area on the property: a lot with no obstacles. Unfortunately, the lot was used for drop-off and pick-up of students, and couldn’t be blocked off for the amount of time the tents would be in place.

The client agreed to go back to the original plan with the combination of tents around obstacles, until a week before the event, when preliminary construction demolition removed trees and curbs in front of the existing building, creating a usable space for the tents.

“It was a difficult back and forth, but in the end it all worked out well for both us and the customer,” says Jordan Weaver, business development manager for Elite Tents and Events.

Elite started the installation on a Wednesday for the Sunday event and lucked out with unusually mild weather for February in the mid-Atlantic area: blue skies and temperatures in the mid-60s. The company installed two 40-by-180-foot Anchor Navi-Trac® tents, totaling 14,400 square feet. The tents were fully lighted and included a two-tiered 24-by-24-foot stage. Because the site was going to be demolished, Elite was allowed to stake through the asphalt, so there were no issues with anchoring.

Both tents were installed on the first day. In addition, Elite provided multiple L.B. White Premier™ 170BTU heaters for the event.

“Lighting, heating, staging, tables, chairs, pipe and drape, etc., were completed with smaller crews in the next few days,” Weaver says.

The Sunday event began with a VIP seated buffet breakfast in a 40-by-60-foot section of one of the tents that was cordoned off with pipe and drape. After the breakfast, the pipe and drape were removed, and the final seating for the ceremony was set up.

And when it was over, Elite removed the entire job before the bell rang at 3 p.m. on Monday.

“The event was incredible, and the clients couldn’t have been more thrilled with our work,” Weaver says.