GREAT BRITISH CHEESE FESTIVAL

LOCATION:

Cardiff Castle, Castle Street, Cardiff, CF10 3RB, Wales

The Great British Cheese Festival brought a slice of heaven to cheese lovers again this year from its home at Cardiff Castle, The event takes place in September and is a show case for Great British Cheese and is home to the largest cheese market in Britain.

PROJECT BRIEF:

The Great British Cheese Festival is situated within the grounds of Cardiff Castle, this historic setting provides a wonderful back drop for the event but it does provide logistical issues not usually encountered when providing marquees.  As the castle is built as a defensive structure access is extremely difficult, with the only access entry points at either the North or South gates.  One leads directly onto the high street and main road in Cardiff city centre, the other is an access road at the rear of the Castle and the equipment has to be brought across a draw bridge.  Another major factor is the historic nature of the site, the land is protected by CADW (The official guardian of the built heritage of Wales).  As a result we are unable to penetrate or disturb the ground to secure the marquees.  This provides a challenge on how to secure the structure.

Whilst taking the above factors into account Danco are tasked with providing a venue for the Great British Cheese Festival and areas to host Britain’s biggest Cheese Market, Best of British Food Market, School for Big Cheeses, Cardiff Arms Pub and many more.

SOLUTION:

Danco marquee hire provide nearly 2000 square meters (6560 sq ft) of marquees arranged in a layout that provides distinctive zones and a village feel to the festival.  All the equipment is delivered on small vehicles that are able to enter into the castle grounds.  We have to take great care of the castle grounds when unloading and installing the equipment to ensure that we protect the surface as much as possible from any damage.

As we are unable to secure the structures by the usual means of staking into the ground so we have to use water ballast to weight the structures down. We need over 90 weights to hold all of the structures in place with each of the weights weighing approximately 1 tonne each. This alone requires logistical planning to get them in to place safely.