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For a dance-centered festival that encourages freedom of expression, sustainability and human connection, finding a tent and event company that echoes those values is paramount. WECANDANCE at Zeebrugge beach in Bruges, Belgium, is more than a music festival. It’s a full experience focusing on community, design and impact that features six stages, two weekends, four sunsets and more than 150 artists. It’s a blend of art, fashion, storytelling and self-expression—and for the past 10 years, Organic-Concept Tents, Aartselaar, Belgium, has been providing the flexible and welcoming structures for the event.
Bars, stages and VIP areas
The event’s eclectic lineup showcases a diverse mix of electronic music genres alongside hip-hop and downtempo, with the goal of creating a welcoming ambience. To that end, the client asked Organic-Concept to cover specific zones and stages in its Organic-Concept signature style. The areas included the food market, all bars, experience areas, hip-hop stage, main stage, entrance and the VIP area.
To equip the bars, Organic-Concept attached its stretch tents to the cooling containers so they could incorporate access to the front and back bar. For past editions, the crew covered the food courts and VIP restaurant with sailcloth tents in a variety of configurations and sizes. This year, a whole new food court area was created in Tokyo market style, built of a custom stretch tent measuring 20 by 77 meters, attached to a scaffolding frame, mixed with trussing. A 374-square-meter Experience Market was also covered with a mix of scaffolding and trussing attached to a trussing frame.
Since last year’s edition, Organic-Concept installed a new hip-hop stage with a custom-made stretch design anchored to containers stacked two stories high, covering a total surface area of 1,400 square meters with 12 center poles, trussed with sleeves ranging from 8-9 meters high. The VIP deck at the main stage was constructed using several levels of scaffolding between containers, topped with an 800-square-meter custom stretch tent cover. “These innovations reflect our commitment to enhancing the event experience with modern, robust designs,” says Anse Van Gestel, head of marketing and creative designer for Organic-Concept.
Flexible and sturdy
Stretch tents are handmade by experienced sailmakers, and can be attached to all kinds of facade structures and walls to extend a terrace or outdoor space. Part of what makes them different from traditional tent structures is that they have a softer look and feel than the more classical frame structures. “The organic shapes blend in any type of environment and will uplift any covered area,” Van Gestel says. “The location is subject to different types of weather conditions like sun, rain or wind as we are on the beach next to the sea. The modular, easily adaptable and connectable nature of stretch tents allows us to expand areas in case of bad weather or extreme heat.”
To stabilize the structures, Organic-Concept generally digs a meter-deep hole with an excavator to reach hard sand, then anchors with stake plates and stakes, or uses concrete blocks that the crew buries under the sand. They also add large baseplates to reinforce the center poles and small baseplates to support the perimeter poles, as well as add storm ratchets on top of the stretch tents to keep them from blowing upward.
“The main challenges were providing the right machinery and working tools to adapt to the custom tent structure installations,” Van Gestel continues. “These are always very specific and often need to be custom made.”
In addition to tenting structures, Organic-Concept installed a modular, wooden flooring system. The crew positioned flooring on metal bars with an interlocking security system, in addition to custom atmosphere lighting that was compatible with its nature-inspired structures.
Calls from Mother Nature
Weather conditions are always challenging, both during setup and the festival itself due to the coastal location. “There are always last-minute modifications usually related to the weather,” Van Gestel says. “One of our strengths is our flexibility to adapt to any last-minute request and get everything in order before the festival doors are opening.”
The setup of 6,000 square meters of covered areas takes between seven and eight days, with a takedown of between three and four days. “We have a 10-year collaboration with the client, and we have created the explicit and unique style of their festival over the years, in close collaboration with the organization by pioneering/showcasing new Organic Tent structures, year in and year out,” Van Gestel says. “It takes eight to 10 people for installation, depending on the build-up of the day and including project managers, drivers and technicians.”
Historically, the weather conditions for this event have ranged from extreme heat to heavy storms, torrential rain and flooding due to high tides—which can cover up to half of the festival grounds. “For the first setup of the new hip-hop stage structure, we had to ensure everything was built within a short window of good weather, which was within one day,” Van Gestel explains. “The heavy wind and rain can make it impossible to handle these 500-meter-squared tent sails that need to be interconnected at a height of 6 meters. And anchoring on the beach is always a significant challenge. As the festival is always taking place during spring tide and is built next to the harbor mouth/entrance, it has been challenging to keep the water out.
“In the 2019 edition we were facing a day with wind gusts up to 9 on the Beaufort Scale [categorized as a severe gale with winds of 47-54 mph],” she continues. “On that day we had a team of 10 people on-site who were in constant radio contact with the CP-OPS tower and festival organization to extra secure all 6,000 square meters of Organic Tent structures and keep anything bad from happening. It was an intense day, but we managed to come out of it unscathed and it was a proof to everyone present what our products could withstand.”
Sigrid Tornquist is a Minneapolis, Minn.-based writer and editor and former InTents editor.
By the numbers
- 6,000-meter-squared covered space
- 1,400-meter-squared hip-hop stage
- 8-9-meter high hip-hop stage, anchored on containers
- 1,540-meter-squared food court attached to 8-9 meter high trussing frame
- 374-meter-squared Experience Market attached to 8-9 meter high trussing frame
- Total of 850-meter-squared covered bars
- 800-meter-squared main stage/VIP area anchored on containers
- 7-8 days for setup
- 8-10 technicians for installation
- 5-7 days for takedown
Vendor partners:
- John&Jane, audiovisual
- Levi Party Rental, furniture
- BUTIK, brand activations
- ASE (All Stage Equipment), scaffolding