Ichthus Festival - Wilmore, KY

I'm told that this event is called the Woodstock of Christian Music. I know it as the event with the hardest surface to drive stakes that we've ever set up. The folks at the Ichthus Music Festival in Wilmore, KY (just southwest of Lexington) do a tremendous job putting together all of the elements that make a great festival.

Starting with the setting, farm land tucked away in horse country, the 360 degree views from the event space are only of nature and are quite awe-inspiring. The festival space has nothing but plenty of room to enjoy about 100 different bands on 4 stages. Across the acreage of the farm we set up several large, traditional pole style tents from 60 to 100 feet wide. These tents should give ample coverage from the sun for the tens of thousands that are anticipated to arrive later this week.

I was personally impressed that, even though this farm is seemingly in the middle of no where, the facilities on site are just as impeccable as the land they sit on. They have huge restroom and shower facilities for the concert goers, running water in dozens of locations around the grounds, and very well laid out electrical service at all parts of the farm.

In terms of the installation, we arrived last Tuesday afternoon and began to work immediately. Before the end of the day, we had both 100'x200' tents in the air. We then started working on the rest of the tents on Wednesday, first laying them out, then circling back around to actually put them up. Rather than devote all of our guys to one tent at a time, we worked in an assembly line fashion where a handful of guys were responsible for lacing and laying out stakes. The next group of guys would come in and put in side poles and center poles. The final group of guys would come through and tighten everything down. The teams would move on in shifts from tent to tent until the entire install of the large tents was done. I found this method to be extremely efficient.

One note on tent installation in Kentucky: ALWAYS BRING A HAMMER DRILL TO PRE DRILL ALL STAKE HOLES. A regular jackhammer will not drive re-bar or steel stakes through the Kentucky rock. This is a lesson we learned very quickly and I am happy to pass it on to any other tent company installing tents in that area.

All in all, we finished our installation in 3 and a half days. That was what we scheduled for the job so I'm pleased in that regard. I think we could've moved a bit quicker if we were better prepared for the staking surface. Our part of the event is now complete and the folks at Ichthus are setting up the rest of their staging, lighting, sound equipment, etc... I wish them nothing but luck with set up and the event.