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.

Its been a while since we've posted anything as we're in the middle of our busiest time of the year. To show the craziness we go through to complete graduation parties, please check out this article from the Columbus Dispatch this past weekend. On top of the 160 graduation parties we set up last weekend, we also provided tenting for events around the Memorial Tournament, a fundraising event for St. Jude's at the Columbus Zoo, the Columbus Arts festival, and the OHSAA State Championship Track meet at OSU. Our guys have been working serious overtime for the last 3 weeks. This week upcoming looks to be just as busy as the last couple but we should be returning back to normal and our crews will be happy to finally get some rest! Photos of those events listed above to come.

Decorator's Show House

O'Neil Tents had the pleasure to set up tenting for the Decorators Show House, an event benefitting the Columbus Museum of Art. This job features a 30x45, a 20x20, an 8x8, and a 15x15 frame tent lashed together on an odd shaped drive way to create the maxium amount of usable event space. This special event also features a pretty special 33x33 clear span structure. The structure was built on biljax stage to level out the sloping yard between landscaping beds and carpeted to help aid in the finished feel of the structure. Please see our facebook page for the images of the event.

March, St. Patty's Day and More.

Well, as today is the first of April, a couple of things have happened recently. First, We're starting to get past some of the cold weather that we've come to know and love in Columbus. Second, our installation crews are starting to see more time on the road working on projects (which, believe me, they prefer to inventory maintenance). Third, we've had another St. Patrick's Day weekend. Everyone knows that the biggest St. Patrick's Day party in the state is at Flannagan's in Dublin. We've worked with them to cover their sand volleyball courts with 25mx50m clear span structure. Using structure, we're able to almost make the volley ball court area an extension of the building itself because of the proximity to the building that we can achieve. This is an awesome event that the local morning zoo broadcasts from and thousands of people attend throughout the day. This year we added another new comer to the St. Patrick's day mix. The Tilted Kilt in Polaris is a pretty interesting bar/restaurant to say the least. Its basically the child of an Irish Pub and Hooters. The concept apparently works due to the success of their inaugural St. Patrick's Day Party. The Tilted Kilt took over the parking lot in front of its restaurant and we set up a 15mx30m clear span structure complete with event deck flooring, staging, lighting, tables and chairs. In addition to these services, we took care of heating the event space, generator and crowd control fencing. This job was not without challenges, but it shows how awesome planning and execution can make an event feel seemless. After the initial site visit and quote acceptance, O'Neil achieved the temporary building permits, hired contractors, and delivered positive results for our new customer. We took care of the details so all they had to worry about was traffic into the event. Some of the pictures below are credited to the Tilted Kilt Columbus' Facebook account. Check out their page for more images of events at the pub.

Deadly Game of Follow the Leader

Today, a friend of mine brought an interesting video/concept to my attention. Ants are blind and when they travel to collect food, they follow a leader based on scent. This gets a little dicey as the leader isn't a designated ant, its just the one who happens to be walking in the front of the pack. So, a major problem can arise when an ant from the middle of the pack veers off course and suddenly moves to front of the group. The effect is that the pack doubles back on itself and the result is thousands of ants marching in a spiral until they die of starvation. The article is from NPR and can be found here. There is a pretty neat video on there too.

In terms of a small business, this idea of playing a deadly game of follow the leader is a little scary. Not having a clear reference point to your goals and not having the right person leading the way can be catastrophic. If your vision for your company isn't clear and you are easily taken off track, much like the ants, productivity will cease until your company eventually starves to death.

Home and Garden Show

If you're looking for something to do this weekend to escape the winter blah's of Columbus, check out the home and garden show at the State Fair Grounds. You can get some really great ideas for improving your landscape from some of the top professionals in the area. The event will take place in two different buildings on the Fair Grounds. You may ask if you'll need to brave the winter weather when walking from building to building and the answer is NO!

O'Neil Tents set up a 50' wide clear span structure between the buildings that covers the walkway and will hopefully make your day a little more enjoyable.

For the show schedule and a list of presenters that includes an HGTV host, please check out their website at http://dispatchevents.com/events.html.

Giving Back

O'Neil tents is a firm believer in supporting our local community. We recently donated a custom equipment cover to the Canal Winchester marching band and they were kind enough to senda thank you email to all of their boosters. Check out the letter on our web page at: http://www.oneiltents.com/pages/testimonials.aspx