Another Tentipi World Record

 By: Torsten Gabrielsson, Tentipi

93 giant Nordic Tipis.

4 days.

5 locations.

At -30°C!

The premise would make any entrepreneur sleepless for weeks: build dining halls for several thousand 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 rental companies coming together it would never have worked out”, project leader and head of Tentipi Norway, Jonny Bakaas, says.

It was for the second round of the World Rally Championship (WRC), held in Norway, taking the drivers on snow and ice covered gravel roads between Oslo and Hamar – a distance of about 130 kilometers.

For a couple of years, our Norwegian customers 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 obvious.

“We knew this was a big thing to take on, but soon it grew even more. By the time we started building, the order was 93 Nordic Tipis in five different locations. But we only had 30 in the whole country at the time” says Jonny.

With a tradition of collaborating with all rental companies in Norway, Jonny gathered them all together as the workforce for the event. He’d also joined forces with some Swedish rental companies, adding up to a total of 63 Nordic Tipis and a workforce of about 30 people.

“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 34 Nordic Tipis in Kongsvinger. The site featured a structure of 15 linked Stratus in three rows, linked to a smaller dining hall for VIP guests and a kitchen. 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.

Tuesday, 14 people from the crew built 17 Nordic Tipis in Kirkenær and 21 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, and moved on to the next leg of the rally. As soon as lunch was over, the crew started taking down the tents. Being 21 tents short, the tents needed to be used for the coming legs to Lillehammer and Elverum.

The crew set up six Nordic Tipis in Lillehammer, beginning in the evening and working all night through. Friday, the last 15 Nordic Tipis were built at the final location, Elverum.

“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.”