Have you considered shipping containers as a part of your festival planning?
In this article we will show you how shipping containers can be a core element of the event’s logistics, storage and infrastructure. Broadly this breaks down into three areas:
- Transportation and storage – the purpose for which shipping containers were originally designed
- Bringing the same containers into dual use – for event infrastructure, as well as transportation and storage
- Converting shipping containers – into offices, food stalls, ablution blocks and even as secure ATM units
Let’s look at these three areas in more detail.
1. Transportation and storage
Thanks to the standardised global infrastructure for moving shipping containers around, it is easy to transport them from A to B as required.
Another straightforward use of shipping containers is as storage units. You might want to keep the stage gear and other festival stuff in the containers away from the site for the next 11 months. Gear that is used some of the time on-site can also be stored in the shipping container between uses.
Shipping containers are weather and vermin-proof, making their use as storage boxes ideal.
2. Dual usage
Festival shipping containers can have other uses too. At the same time as transporting and storing the festival gear they can:
– Have canopies attached for shelter
You can’t predict the weather these days. One year the festival could be a mud bath and the next baked to a crisp! Whether from the sun, or the wind and rain, shelters are essential at a festival.
Thanks to their weight, shipping containers can be used as anchors and struts for such shelters. At the same time they can be used for infrastructure and equipment storage, making savings on such investments.
– Be barriers to direct the flow of the crowd
Containers can be used for crowd management, whether at the gates or to the stages. These will also have the dual use of storage and transporting the event’s gear.
– Be stage infrastructure
Linked to crowd control, shipping containers can form much of the stage. The stage can be stored and transported in them between events. Sub-stage infrastructure can be put in place too – it’s down to your imagination!
3. Conversions
Here at Gateway Container Sales we have a vast array of articles that look at the way that shipping containers have been converted over the years. Here are five examples you can use at a festival:
- Food stalls and merchandise stands
- Ablution blocks
- Box offices, information kiosks and site offices
- Secure ATM units
- Solar power units
Shipping containers are a blank canvas that can be converted almost endlessly. At our yard in Brisbane, we can convert shipping containers into food stalls and merchandise stands quickly and at a low cost.
We can add plumbing and power supplies that meet and exceed environmental health standards for food preparation. Where it comes to plumbing, ablution units can be made from shipping containers, allowing an easily transportable essential facility to be moved easily on-site.
The security of shipping containers is important in their original design. This makes them excellent for housing ATM machines.
One idea that we have promoted over the years is that shipping containers can be used as solar power arrays. If you want to reduce your carbon emissions, having an array of shipping container solar power units could well reduce your carbon intensity due to power demands. Have a look at this example.
Want to use shipping containers at your festival?
We hope this article has shown you some of the benefits of using shipping containers at your festival. If you have similar ideas then drop us a line to see how we can help with our full range of used shipping containers.
