As the title suggests, we are thrilled to announce that we have once again been appointed the festival stage hire supplier for Samfest. We've worked with the festival organisers for several years now, and it's great to be awarded another year with them.

It's worth just spending a moment or two introducing you to Samfest, if you haven't heard of it before, and explaining why next year's rendition is going to be bigger and better than ever before!

Samfest is a Music Festival with a Difference

Samfest is unlike many other music festivals in that it donates 100% of its profits to charity. This community music festival was initially named Oakfest back in 2010. However, on April 2nd 2010, during the build-up to our original festival Oakfest, event organiser Michael Wright tragically lost his wife and the mother of their 3-year-old son to cancer. Sam, a member of the committee herself, had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer on in the run-up to the preceding Christmas and lost her brave battle three months later.

After the community pulled together to make sure Oakfest went ahead in 2010, the following year the decision was made to re-name the event in Sam's memory, and the festival is now known as Samfest. Today, the festival raises money predominately for the Phyllis Tuckwell Hospice whose staff and facilities helped so much in caring for Sam. They receive 80% of all proceeds, with the remaining 20% evenly distributed among local organisations within Tongham.

Over their ten years of events, Samfest has raised hundreds of thousands of pounds for local causes, reaching £60,000 in donations after just a few years. We'll think you'll agree that it's a fantastic event. But let's tell you a little bit more about the type of music festival it is.

Year-upon-year, the festival continues to grow in size. Next year will see at least 15 bands and over 60 artists performing an array of different musical genres. All, of course, on our state-of-the-art stages. This all takes place across one day at the Tongham recreation ground, in front of a backdrop of the beautiful Surrey hills.

The musical performances are accompanied by an ever-growing arts & crafts festival market, an international funfair, plenty of food outlets, a vast Samfest festival marquee bar and loads of kids' entertainment.

Unfortunately, this year the event, like so many others had to be called off due to the pandemic. This was an incredibly difficult decision for the organisers because 2020 would have marked ten years since the passing of Sam and the first-ever hosting of the festival. However, the organisers have assured us that they are going BIG next year to make up for the hiatus, which will mean that we have more on our plate than ever before. So what will we be supplying? We're glad you asked...

Outdoor Stages Chosen as Stage Hire Company for Samfest 2021

Yep, you guessed it; stages are going to be top of the agenda once again. Over the years, we have provided several different stages, and they've generally got bigger in size as the festival has gradually increased the number of attendees each year. Next year, for the main stage, they'll be taking one of our largest stages on offer, the 11m x 9m Arc Roof stage, which has a maximum roof height of 6.5m, a payload of 3500kg, and usable stage surface area of 10m x 8m!

Of course, this specific concert stage hire package will come complete with a range of sound equipment and lighting fixtures, but we'll get into those in more detail shortly. Sticking with the structure, the stage will complete with a couple of PA wings, which we think will house two huge branded Samfest LED screens (still working out the details), and will be the structures that our top-of-the-range PA line array speakers will hang from.

We will also be providing a couple of smaller stages for additional areas within the festival grounds. We will put up a small stage in the "U-Play" tent whereby local, talented performers can simply rock up and play to anybody who happens to be passing through. We've also got our 6m x 4m apex roof stage on standby for something new coming in 2021, that's all we can say at this moment in time!

But stages are just the beginning when it comes to the equipment we supply to Samfest. Let's move on to the lighting!

Stage Lighting for Samfest Supplied by Outdoor Stages

Stages performances wouldn't be anywhere near as emphatic without the use of lighting fixtures. While we've always supplied lighting for Samfest, next year we are going even bigger and better. We will be supplying a broad range of equipment, which includes at least some of the following:

• LED PAR Cans
• Moving Head / "Intelligent" Lights
• Stage Blinders
• Spotlights
• Fresnels
• Uplighters
• Pixel Battens
• Lasers
• Floodlights
• And much more!

As you can see, numerous fixtures will be going on both the main stage and a number of the subsidiary stages. In total, we are expecting to rig over 100 lighting fixtures, making this event one of our largest lighting allocations thus far. Thankfully we've got more than enough in our warehouse to meet the demands of such a task! We will also take care of the programming of the "intelligent" lighting fixtures to create dazzling light displays to accompany each artist.

But enough about lighting the stage, let's talk about the sound systems!

Sound Hire Supplied by Outdoor Stages to Samfest

When the organisers say they are coming back next year bigger and better, they weren't exaggerating! For the next edition of Samfest, they have requested the biggest and best PA system we have. That, of course, means rolling the big guns with the massive PA line arrays courtesy of d&b audiotechnik, widely regarded as the best in the business. While they will be suspended from the PA wings, there'll be plenty of sound gear on the stage too.

We'll also be supplying top-class stage monitors, amplifiers, subwoofers, and microphones (including instrumental mics) right across the stage. Thus, not only will band and artists look fantastic, both they'll sound brilliant too. For the remaining stages, we'll be supplying the PA speakers and sound equipment for the smaller artists.

That's the sound and lighting equipment taken care of, but there's going to be something new this year, which is the use of our brand spanking new outdoor LED video walls and screens.

LED Screens Provided to Samfest by Outdoor Stages

That's right, this year's edition of Samfest will welcome the addition of our stunning IP 65-rated LED video walls. While the precise details are still to be worked out, we anticipate that they will accompany the main stage and replace where the fabric Samfest banners are traditionally placed (PA wings).

We will also supply several LED screens to other important locations throughout the recreation ground, with some of them acting as digital signage. The IP-65 rating will ensure that they will continue to work unaffected if the weather lets us down, but in the years we have been doing this festival, we've yet to experience poor weather (touch wood!).

Outdoor Stages Arranges and Supplies Power to Samfest

Another aspect that we have been tasked with is organising the power infrastructure. All of the equipment mentioned above is going to need a great deal of power, and luckily we are well-equipped to handle this request too.

We've recently invested significant amounts of capital in a couple of state-of-the-art diesel generators to supply not just Samfest, but all festival clients who require power when positioned huge distances from conventional sources. It's a request we're are increasingly receiving from our clientele, so we've accordingly stepped up to meet those demands.

On-site Production Services

Before we forget to mention it, we'll also be on-site providing support as and when needed for this one-day festival. We'll have our super experienced staff on the ground making sure that all of the sound is mixed and balanced correctly, the light show is as captivating and imaginative as possible, and that the LED screens are broadcasting correctly.

Of course, our stage crews will arrive on-site a few days beforehand to get through the initial hard yards of setting up the stages, including installing the underground load supports required of a grass surface. For this specific event, we like to have everything set up by the evening prior. This is because, by festival standards, the event starts quite early and so we don't want to be making last-minute changes before the acts head out on stage!

Lastly, we'll be back bright and early the next morning to start the disassembly process. While we don't have to go through all of the checking and double-checking procedures that we do when setting up, it's still an immense undertaking. Last year it took us two full days to clear the site of all equipment. Next year, given the increase in equipment, that could bleed into three days. However, we always leave any site as close as possible to how we found it, bar the usual grass footprint left by the massive stage.

Choose Outdoor Stages for Your Summer 2021 Music Festival

With the summer festival season wiped out due to COVID-19, it's only right for you to look forward to next year where the necessary protocols can be in place (and hopefully a vaccine) to ensure that everyone can remain safe while having a good time.

Given there are so many events that didn't take place this year that are going to be crammed into next summer, as an outdoor event organiser, you're going to need to get your festival stage hire booked in as soon as possible. Those who leave it until the new year will find themselves struggling to find a concert stage hire supplier.

Here at Outdoor Stages, we are a stage hire company that's already well-versed in working under COVID-secure guidelines, and we have the capacity (for now) to take on ALL technical production aspects of your event. While we specialise in staging services, we can provide all manner of equipment, including lighting, sound, LED screens, power, and all of the on-site support you could ever need.

We're proud of the reputation we have built in the industry over our two decades of operations, and, as is the case with Samfest, we are the preferred stage hire company for several music festivals across the South East of England.

So if you would like to learn more about how we can help you, or if you would like to pencil in some dates before they disappear, don't hesitate to give us a call. We look forward to hearing from you!