Keeping Cool at GlastonBARRY
Mack Events Presents Ltd is a family run, professional events company based in Barry, South Wales, whose aim is raising the profile of their local area through exciting events. In 2013 they launched their flagship event: GlastonBARRY, a festival of the best cover and tribute bands from around the world. From humble beginnings in Barry Memorial Hall, GlastonBARRY has expanded to become a sell-out festival with more than 18,000 visitors attending the Romilly Park venue this year.
Every year, a key focus for Ashley Griffiths, Operations Supervisor at Mack Events, is the food and drink. The importance of refreshments at big events, like festivals, should not be underestimated, and goes beyond the quality of the products to include the temperature they’re served at. Properly chilled drinks are a must, particularly during a hot summer festival, and Ashley is committed to making sure they have the right facilities to serve cold refreshments throughout the festival.
As GlastonBARRY is hosted in a public park, all the event’s facilities need to both be temporary and have minimal impact on the public land. In the past, the team used refrigerated trailers to keep their refreshments at the perfect temperature. However, over time it became clear this wasn’t the most convenient solution for their requirements.
While refrigerated trailers are mobile and temperature controlled, their access height made it difficult for the team to work efficiently. A large event, such as GlastonBARRY, requires fast, smooth operations, and the additional need of a loading dock for the refrigerated trailers made it difficult to move refreshments fast enough to keep up with the demand of the festival. Additionally, there was concern for the state of the ground in Romilly Park and, while some damage is unavoidable, the team at Mack Events always try to keep this to a minimum. They are conscious of their impact on the public land, particularly as their events have such as community focus.
An Inflatable Solution
Last year, Ashley began looking for an alternative solution that would maintain their high standards for safety and the quality of their products. Ashley discovered Tempstores through articles about their role in the pharmaceutical industry and refugee work around the world. He saw the technology as the ideal solution for their festival storage and got in touch with us to arrange hire of Tempstores in time for GlastonBARRY 2023.
The Tempstore combines top-of-the-range insulation and inflatable technology to produce exceptional cold storage solutions. The reliable temperature control ranges from +18˚ to -18˚, which was more than cold enough for the GlastonBARRY refreshments. Additionally, Tempstores are quick and easy to install, and when packed away, they are small enough to be transported on a single trailer, making it easy to move through the residential area next to the park. This made them an excellent choice for the team, as they fit their tight set-up schedule and limit the amount of vehicular movement, which in turn limits the damage the event has on the park.
Mack Events hired three Tempstore 26’s and one Tempstore 10 to store the refreshments for their three-day event. They fitted seamlessly into the GlastonBARRY set up, providing an efficient and reliable solution for the team. The inflatables sit at ground level, removing the need for a loading dock, and with a total of 78 m2 of internal space, the three connected Tempstore 26’s are wide enough to safely operate a forklift truck inside. As a result, the team at GlastonBARRY had quick and easy access to all their stock. While the team primarily hired the Tempstores to store refreshments for the event, they found that the wider layout gave them the space to store other products as well, even stock that didn’t require temperature control.
Confidence in Tempstore and the Team
“The biggest impact of the Tempstore was really the confidence it gave us,” said Ashley. “Refreshments are an important part of our event, and we can’t sell them warm, so we needed a chilling solution that we could rely on. Dawsongroup gave us that confidence, not just in the product itself but also the team that we worked with. Chris Allen, Sam Weedop and the installation team were great. They couldn’t do enough for us, and we knew that we’d found the right solution for us during our initial consultation.”
This year, the GlastonBARRY festival was a great success, and the team were thrilled with how easily the Tempstore fitted into their work behind the scenes. Ashley was so pleased with the result that he has already arranged to hire more Tempstores for next year’s GlastonBARRY, and is looking forward to working with Dawsongroup more in the future.
Contact our team today for further information about our inflatable temperature-controlled solutions and visit Dawsongroup to find out more about our Smarter Asset Strategy.
Find out more about Mack Events and book your tickets to GlastonBARRY 2024. You can also find Mack Events Presents and GlastonBARRY information on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter/X, and TikTok under mackevents.
