A festival stage is one of those jobs where the kit list is longer than people expect. You need a deck big enough for the band, a roof that survives Yorkshire weather, a PA that reaches the back of the field, power that lasts until the headline act finishes, and barriers so the crowd stays where the crowd should stay. We've been supplying all of that through DB Entertainment and our sister company Staging Events since 1999, and this is what actually goes into a festival, music or community event setup.
How big does the stage need to be?
It depends on the act, and we ask that question first. A DJ or a solo performer fits comfortably on our Mini Stage Hire 3x3m. A three-piece band with backing singers works on the 4x4m Event Stage. For a five-piece band plus a choir of 15, the 6x6m Event Stage Hire gives them room to move, with side walls for shelter. When you're into festival headliner territory - a 10-piece band with 25 singers, or a full production with lighting rig - the Mobile Trailer Stage Hire is the one to look at. Its deck is 42 square metres, it tows to site, and the crew can have it set up in around 30 minutes and taken down in about 45, which matters when you've got a site that has to be clear by Monday morning.
Sound, lighting and power for outdoor events
A stage without a decent PA is just a roof, so we supply sound to match the stage size. Our PA and music section covers compact EV ELX systems for village fetes and goes up to line array PA hire for larger fields, with mixing desks, wired and wireless microphones and monitors. Festoon lighting at around £149 per 100m warms up a site once the sun goes, and our silent lighting towers hold floodlights aloft without a diesel engine running underneath them.
Power is the part that catches organisers out. Our generator and safety equipment range covers diesel units from 2.2 kVA up to 20 kVA with up to 16 hours of runtime at 75% load, plus the Instagrid 2.1 kWh battery generator for quiet, fume-free power near the stage. For a 20 kVA diesel setup, you're looking at a fuel footprint and a noise consideration that a battery can't replace - we'll tell you honestly which one your lineup needs.
Crowd management and the unglamorous kit
Metal crowd control barriers start from around £7.50 a unit, and they're the thing festival organisers forget until the last week. Stage steps, start/finish gantries for charity runs, marquees for the first aid tent - it all comes off the same vans. Every stage hire includes structural calculations and design documentation, and you get the risk assessments and method statements as PDFs before the event, which is usually the first thing the council's safety advisory group asks for.
Who we do this work for
The biggest single event we've supplied is the Alzheimer's Society Memory Walk, where our staging, PA and start/finish gantries have handled around 110,000 participants nationwide over the years. Closer to home we've supplied Sheffield Children's Hospital Charity fundraisers, school summer concerts in Rotherham and Doncaster, and village festivals around Barnsley and Worksop, with crew who live in South Yorkshire and know the sites. For larger festivals we run the full production package - stage, sound, lighting, power and crew - through stagingevents.co.uk.
What we need from you
Being upfront about the limits: a trailer stage needs firm ground access for a towing vehicle, so a field that's been raining all week might need a different plan. Indoor community halls usually can't take a full trailer stage, which is why we keep the modular 1x1m and 2x1m deck systems in stock - they go through a standard double door and build to the size the room allows. And we don't do the licensing; a premises licence or temporary event notice is the organiser's job, though we can supply the documentation your application needs.
Not sure what size stage and setup fits your site and your lineup? Give the office a ring on 0114 345 0135, or get a quote through the delivery and hire pages, and we'll talk it through - we'll tell you straight if the plan needs changing.
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