5 summer events that might require ground protection

Aside from a new building project, there are plenty of other reasons why ground protection companies are likely to be very busy this summer up and down the country. Hopefully, the weather will be good and all of the events will be a huge success. Let’s take a quick look at some of those organisers who, if they haven’t already, need to be in contact with companies like Ground Access Hire to ensure their ground or land is sufficiently protected.

1. Summer Weddings – Not all summer weddings will have an outdoor function, but there is growing popularity for this kind of celebration. Weddings or receptions might take place in a private garden or on a piece of public land and ground protection mats could be used as walkways or underneath marquees to provide a suitable surface.
2. Music Festivals – It won’t be long before these festivals are in full swing around the country. They vary in size but whoever is on the bill, make sure that ground protection is seen as a priority.
3. Sports Field Maintenance – The summer is often the off season for many sports and is usually a time to refresh and renew playing surfaces. Ground access mats can help make the procedure much easier and safer.
4. Car Boot Sales – Not one that you would necessarily associate with ground protection mats, but a boot sale in the mud is generally no fun at all – so well worth considering.
5. Villages Fetes and Fairs – You may be hoping for the sun to shine but if the rain comes and there are no mats in place, you might as well send everyone home!

You can learn much more about ground protection at Ground Access Hire

Glastonbury 2014 Line Up - Dolly Parton, Blondie, Lilly Allen and Ground Protection Mats

It’s that time of year when the bill for all the summer festivals gets drip fed to the public as various acts confirm their availability and intention to appear. Glastonbury 2014 has recently added Dolly Parton, Blondie, Lilly Allen and The Black Keys to the line-up which certainly covers a large swathe of the musical genres available!

There are sure to be further exciting announcements in the coming days and weeks but one act confirmed to be on the bill of most music festivals this summer is ground protection mats. They won’t be singing but they will be performing a number of very important tasks which include providing temporary car parks, roadways and pathways so that all of the festival goers and their vehicles can have a much safer and more stable experience while taking in some of their favourite bands.

Most organisers will have their ground protection plans well in hand already but if not, they really can prove to be a vital ingredient to a successful event on whatever scale.

Ground Access Hire are able to supply various kinds of ground protection for a whole host of events and festivals, so please visit the website for more details.

Defying the Elements and Protecting Your Outdoor Event

Although the art of accurately forecasting the weather has improved immeasurably in recent years, there is still a significant fly in the ointment. We might be able to tell what’s coming and even when it’s coming but we can’t actually stop it from coming. When those rain clouds bubble up and the wind gets going, there is quite literally no stopping it.

So, the best way to deal with it is to have the best preparation possible. On an individual level, this might mean taking a waterproof coat to work with us because rain has been forecast for later in the day but what do you do if you are the organiser of a large outdoor event, be it a summer music festival or unique ceremony of some kind.

Well, you plan for each possible eventuality, at least in terms of the weather. If it’s really hot, you will need to make sure all of the visitors have plenty of water to drink, if it’s really wet, you might want to have waterproofs to sell or even to give away. However, you also need to think about making the venue safe. Extreme weather can have a devastating effect on the best laid plans so you need to be ready.

Ground protection mats are an absolutely essential ingredient of any modern outdoor event, large or small. Not only do they do just as they say - protect the ground - which is great when Farmer Bloggs comes round to inspect his land the day after everyone has gone home - but also they can protect the people during the festival. A mud bath is not conducive to a fun and successful event (despite some of the images you may have seen on TV over the years) and the ground protection mats can go some way to preventing the whole venue being caked in mud. There is also an element of safety to consider and the mats are particularly useful for allowing not just the paying customers safer passage through the venue but also the multitude of staff members that need crucial access to all areas of the venue.

So, you can’t technically beat the weather but you can take it on and give it a good run for its money by having your venue protected with the best planning and preparation possible. Check out the Ground Access HireWebsite for lots more ground protection details.

Ground Protection Mats - The Show Must Go On

Last time out, we looked at how important a role ground protection mats might play for the humble, local car boot sale looking to combat the great British weather in tandem with protecting a piece of land that might not be owned by the organisers of the sale. It’s a double responsibility of ensuring everyone at the event remains as safe as possible and ensuring that the grounds or premises are respected and looked after.

A car boot sale may be a low key example but it does help us to see just how important ground protection can be. During the summer months, there are likely to be many thousands of events and shows taking place around the country, all of which will involve masses of people congregating in areas where people are usually few and far between in areas such as farm land, parkland or even just open countryside.

Perhaps, the biggest modern summer events are the huge music festivals that take place, with a whole collection of pop and rock stars trawling the country, performing at festival after festival. Each of these festivals involves massive amounts preparation and planning and most organisers now factor in ground protection into their overall calculations. As much as they must hope for glorious sunshine and ground that is dry, they know that the heavens may open at any time and soak the very ground that thousands of people will be walking and dancing upon. There have of course, in the past, been occasions where events have had to be cancelled because the ground is no longer safe but most properly planned modern events, tend to go ahead.

However, without ground protection mats, many more summer events and shows would be in danger of cancellation. There are probably also some land owners that simply won’t rent their land out unless they have the guarantee from organisers that the ground will indeed be protected.

As well as pop and rock concerts, there are lots of air shows, agricultural shows, car shows and a whole range of smaller village fetes and festivals all hoping to provide fun for the masses during the summer months. As organisers, it’s likely you already have ground protection issues in hand, but if you don’t please feel free to get in touch with the team at Ground Access Hire, who can not only hire out the relevant equipment but also provide plenty of advice about the best way to tackle the issue at your event.

Keeping Your Winter Wonderland Safe with Anti Slip Ground Protection

Over the coming weeks, many of the major towns and cities up and down the UK, will be staging their own versions of a winter wonderland. In addition to Christmas markets, there will be all kinds of other festive delights, with fun fairs, Santa’s grotto areas, ice skating rinks, outdoor music concerts and other various forms of entertainment to keep the family entertained in between bouts of shopping during the schools out period.

As punters or shoppers, we very often don’t see the time and hard work that goes into preparing these events to ensure that they run smoothly and more importantly keep people safe while they are having a good time.

The elements are perhaps an organiser’s biggest nightmare as it’s something there is simply no control over – so the weather has to be taken into account. You might be lucky and have a prolonged spell of dry and relatively mild weather but not preparing for rain, snow and ice would be foolish in the months of December and January. You certainly don’t want parents and children slip sliding their way to see Santa because he is there to hand out gifts rather than first aid! Despite the weather conditions, people have that little bit extra resilience at this time of year and will be determined to get into the festive spirit – so even when the weather is bad, you must prepare your venue or area for the impending arrival of human feet.

Ground protection should be high on the list of any organisers’ “things to do” as not only is it likely to keep people safer but it’s also likely to make the event a much more pleasant experience for everyone involved.

Companies like Ground Access Hire are an ideal place to turn to for all your big events and special outdoor occasions. The ground protection mats themselves can be hired and usually installed and removed (post event) by the company staff. The mats are strong and durable enough to take plenty of weight in all kinds of weather and the anti-slip surface means that all of the people attending the event will be able to walk confidently on the artificial surface. If the heavens do open, a quagmire can usually be avoided with the mats in place so there is no need for the event to be spoiled in any way.

For more information about ground protection for your upcoming events, visit our main website now.

Avoiding a Mud Bath with Specially Designed Ground Protection Mats

We have reached the letter “M” in our alphabetic series of blogs about Ground Access Hire and Protection mats, so let’s focus on the “mats” themselves for this episode.

The main aims of the mats or Trakmats are to deliver an artificial surface that will temporarily protect the ground, whilst being strong and stable enough to be effective in a whole range of environments and for various different uses.

Some of the most common places to see these mats in action is at events such as summer music festivals or local fetes as well as for things like temporary road works or building work, where access might be across difficult terrain. If you think about the heavy machinery, including vehicles that may need to gain access to a particular site, then you can perhaps understand how important the protection mats are in not only protecting the ground underneath but also providing that stable platform for the vehicles to cross back and forth safely.

Avoiding a mud bath is just one of the many benefits associated with ground protection mats. Some of the others include things like their easy assembly. It really doesn’t take long to get the mats laid into position and ready for use. In most cases, the company you are hiring the mats from will lay them for you, but it’s certainly straightforward enough to lay them yourselves if you prefer. They are extremely light, being made from HD Polyethylene, but are really robust when in position and feature a non-slip surface that give any passing vehicles and pedestrians extra grip.

So, whatever time of year, whatever the event or need, these Trakmats can prove invaluable. Whether it’s an outdoor concert in a park or field, a wedding ceremony and reception in a garden or a new construction project – you may not be able to stop the rain from falling but you can do your utmost to avoid what would otherwise be a certain mud bath. The mats will also make all of these suggested environments safer not only to work in, but for the general public (if it’s an event of some kind) to move around in.

Long term or short term, Trakmats provide a genuine solution to many of the problems that can occur on ground that is at risk from the elements. They can be hired all across the UK and you can find much more information over on out main website – www.groundaccesshire.co.uk

A Sporting Chance – Sports Field Maintenance

With the football season just getting into full swing up and down the country, most fans will hope they never have to see a ground protection mat on their favourite sporting field and fortunately most work that is conducted on these sports grounds is usually scheduled for the period between seasons. However, for various reasons during the breaks between sporting activities, many sports fields require maintenance and protecting the ground from heavy machinery or lots of trampling feet becomes very important.

In addition to routine maintenance procedures, many modern sports arenas and fields feature other special events such as concerts and festivals, especially during the summer months and if the pitches are not covered this can cause huge disruption and damage to the playing surface. With many of these venues needing to host other events in order to keep a steady stream of revenue, it has become more and more important for the organisers to find a suitable solution in order to protect the ground from serious damage.

That solution in many instances is the use of ground protection mats which form a protective barrier between the field of play and the machines and feet that will cross it. These sorts of mats have become really popular for these occasions largely thanks to their ease of use. They are light enough to be handled easily, yet strong and durable enough to be able to take significant amounts of weight.

They are not complicated and can be laid into position very quickly and removed just as efficiently, especially useful when wanting to return the field to its original purpose against the backdrop of a deadline.

Made from HD Polyethylene, the non slip surface ensures that they are really safe to walk on whilst also minimising the risk of tyres slipping on them. Briefly, here are some of the other features of ground protection mats:

They are rot proof – so it doesn't matter how long they are standing and in what conditions.

Plywood panels have been used in the past (and are still sometimes used) but they don’t provide anywhere near the amount of grip and durability.

Environmental damage is kept to an absolute minimum, meaning landowners are much more likely to accept their use.

Once in position, the mats look very professional which again means that they are quickly accepted and embraced by organisers.

If you are responsible for sports field maintenance, then please visit our main website at Ground Access Hire and we can supply mats for either short or long term hire.

An Alphabet of Ground Protection Mats: F – G

We hope you are enjoying our series of blogs that we have dedicated to looking at our Ground Access Hire business from the perspective of the alphabet. We have reached the letters F and G, so let’s just have a brief look at a few things associated with this part of the alphabet.

F

Funfairs/Fetes – At the time of writing, we are in the middle of the summer holidays and it’s the time when many towns and villages host their local fetes or even invite a travelling funfair to town for a few days. Of course, unless there is already a dedicated site, these events will normally take place on a local field and if the correct precautions are not taken, the farmer (whose field he has kindly allowed for use) will be very unhappy indeed, after hundreds of people have trampled upon it. The solution - Ground protection mats!

G

Garden Protection – Perhaps you are building a new water feature in the middle of your lawn, but to do so, you need to get some heavy machinery to the relevant site. Unless you protect the existing turf, you could end up with a muddy mess in addition to your new pond, so consider hiring a ground protection company to ensure this doesn't happen.

Size Doesn’t Matter - Ground Protection for Events Large and Small

You heard it here first...size doesn't matter, at least not when it comes to the size of your summer event or festival and your need for protecting the ground with our ground protection mats. If you are having a small village fete and expect just a trickle of visitors, a fancy wedding on a back field or a concert/music festival in which thousands might be in attendance, our team of professionals are well equipped to deal with any occasion.

We are about at that time of year, when music festivals up and down the country are either about to get under way or are in the final planning stages. There is usually a little something for every musical taste, with plenty to please the mainstream pop and rock fans as well as quirkier, alternative offerings.

For those of you who have been to a music festival, regardless of its size, your experience may first of all be dictated by the weather. If the heavens open, the bottom line is you are going to get wet, but if there are ground protection mats positioned in the most crucial areas of the site, then a mud bath can be avoided.

We have all seen images on our TV screens of completely drenched music lovers up to their ears in mud at major music festivals and it’s quite clear that in these particular areas ground protection mats have not been employed.

Although we are more than happy to tackle larger events here at Ground Access Hire, we are also perfectly set up to cater for smaller events. Things like car boot sales, markets and sports days can all benefit from the firm footing that the mats provide. If the event needs an area for car parking, this too is perfect for protection mats, with them protecting the ground from all of those heavy wheels and vehicles.

Another perfect use for the mats is to create temporary roadways or pathways for events held on the beach, perhaps a wedding reception or other beach event. The mats make it much easier for both vehicles and people to make their way across the sand to where the actual event is being staged.

If you are planning an event and are considering the use of protection mats, please feel free to contact us via our main website and we can certainly provide you with good advice and point you in the right direction.