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91 Event tents in 4 days at 5 locations. In -30°C!

The premises would make any entrepreneur sleepless for weeks: build dining halls for several thousand of rally fans at multiple locations in less than one week – with outside temperatures that make cranes freeze and trucks stop in the middle of the road.

– It was really a team effort, without our Scandinavian network of Tentipi rentals coming together it would never have worked out, project leader and head of Tentipi Norway Jonny Bakaas, says.

Tentipi Norway case study AW22In February 2009 the second round of the World Rally Championship, the WRC, was held in Norway, taking the drivers on snow and ice covered gravel roads from Oslo to Hamar – a distance of about 130 kilometers.

For a couple of years, Norwegian Tentipi rentals had been building Nordic tipis for event and travel company Sponsor Link, making Tentipi a household name at winter sport events all over the country. So when it came to arranging dining halls for the WRC event, the choice was Tentipi.

– We knew this was a big thing to take on, but soon it grew even more. By the time we started building, the ordering was 91 Stratus on five different locations. But we only had 30 Stratus in the whole country, says Jonny.

With a tradition of collaborating with all rentals in Norway, Jonny gathered the companies as workforce for the event, providing him with a little less than 30 Stratus. Being apparently short on tents, Jonny had already joined forces with some Swedish rentals, adding up to a total of 63 Stratus and a workforce of about 30 men.

– We even asked a Swedish customer if we could rent two Stratus 72 that Tentipi Sweden had recently sold to him. It was no problem! Jonny says.

Monday, the week of the WRC, the team built up 30 Stratus and four Cirrus 40 in Kongsvinger. The site featured a structure of 15 attached Stratus, divided on three rows, all connected to a smaller dining hall for VIP guests and a kitchen, all together 22 Stratus. In the VIP area they installed a wooden floor, while the other tents had wood chip flooring. All tents during the week were heated to +22°C, with outside temperatures ranging from -11°C  down to -29°C.

From the side picture in Hamar with 19 stratus and 2 Cirrus 40

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tuesday 14 people from the crew built 15 Stratus in Kirkenær and 19 in Hamar. Wednesday they furnished and laid final touches. The WRC kicked off Thursday morning in Kongsvinger. An estimated 3500 guests had lunch in the massive dining hall of 31 Stratus, and moved on to the next leg of the rally. As soon as lunch was over, the Tentipi crew started taking down the tents. Being 30 tents short, the tents needed to be used for the coming leg in Lillehammer, less than 48 hours later.

building with crane Kongsvinger

 

 

 

 

 

 

“We even asked a Swedish customer if we could rent two Stratus 72 that Tentipi Sweden had recently sold to him. It was no problem!”

The crew set up six Stratus in Lillehammer, beginning in the evening and working all night through. Friday 13 Stratus was built at the final location, Elverum.

Picture from Lillehammer WRC 6 Stratus 72 Meldingen

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Despite the colossal work load and the tight time schedule there was only one accident during the week – caused by the freezing temperature: 6.30 in the morning of the first day of building, one of the crew members drove the boom truck (in Norway they use a crane mounted on a truck to erect the Stratus) to Hamar when it suddenly stopped. The engine froze at -26°C. While the driver waited for help the truck was hit by another truck coming at it at 90 km/h, totally destroying both vehicles. Miraculously both drivers came out of the accident with no injuries.

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– The biggest challenge was definitely the temperature. Your hands get stiff in these temperatures, the canvases, the machines, everything stiffens, Jonny says. We had one Stratus extra as a backup, he continues. Considering we had to build and take the tents down several times during this week, we had to have that security. Turns out, we never needed it!

Inside in Lillehammer with hungry people

 

Tentipi at the WRC in numbers:Kongsvinger build map with 30 Stratus and 4 Cirrus 40

Kongsvinger: 30 Stratus, 4 Cirrus 40
Hamar: 19 Stratus, 2 Cirrus 40
Kirkenær: 15 Stratus, 2 Nimbus
Elverum: 13 Stratus, 2 Cirrus 40
Lillehammer: 6 Stratus
Backup: 1 Stratus
Total: 93 + 1 in backup
Crew: 30
Number of Tentipi rental companies: 8
Countries involved: Norway, Sweden
 
 

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