Stretch Tent Development in the Sahara

Over The Moon have been out in the Sahara doing an Overland trip in our Land Rover 130 work vehicle.  We took the opportunity to take along a 6×8m Intent and look at developing it for the Overland vehicle market.  We got some very positive feedback from vehicle owners and will be suggesting some feature enhancements to Intent manufacturing back home in South Africa to cater for this growing market.

Weight has to be kept to a minimum for Overlanding in dunes so we took no ground stakes and utilised the roof racks and jerry cans we already had with us.  We also experimented with light weight poles.

 

We’re looking forward to reaching Shambala

Drove by the site of the Shambala festival today while out and about with a tipi.  Got a touch of butterflies as I looked forward to next week’s festival. Over The Moon Tents will be providing our vintage military green tent for the reggae area.  While looking at the festivals’s website I got to wondering what exactly Shambala means.  Not surprised to find its a meaningful word.  The crew will be onsite to check the festival lives up to its name.

 http://www.shambalafestival.org

Externally, Shambhala was a geographic location, a seat of inspiration where the Buddha taught the Kalachakra Tantra, the Tantra of the Wheel of Time. In the mythology of Bon, the native religion of Tibet, Shambhala was a Central Asian kingdom, the origin and center of the world whence issued all spiritual energies.

Internally, Shambhala is the dharma chakra, located in the heart of all beings. It is the symbol for mind, completing the trinity of body, speech, and mind.

The esoteric meaning of Shambhala is tathagatagarbha, buddha-nature, the essence of all things. It transcends existence and non-existence and is the ground of both samsara and nirvana. According to the Kalachakra Tantra, the Emperor of Shambhala, Rigden, waged war against and subdued the Three Lords of Materialism: the Lord of Form, the Lord of Speech, and the Lord of Mind. In the Dark Age these Three Lords extend their power and seduction, enslaving the human mind with psychological and spiritual materialism. When Shambhala is acknowledged—when buddha-nature shines through—the strategies of the Three Lords become irrelevant and the teachings of the Kalachakra Tantra are realized.

 

Presenting a Blank Canvas at The Big Chill Festival

Over The Moon tents has been delighted to get involved with the Blank Canvas project at this years Big Chill Festival.  Inspired by seeing the spectacle of dozens of tents given to the homeless and placed along the Canal Saint Martin in Paris, artist Cedric Christie decided to create a charity project that would echo this gesture.

Over The Moon provided an eight section vintage army marquee and two three section ones as the shelter and backdrop inside which the artist’s pup tents are displayed.

Looking into the marquee at one of the artist decorated tents

The boards are assembled inside the marquee

More Info on the Big chill site

http://www.bigchill.net/news/2009/06/the-blank-canvas-project/

and here

http://www.blankcanvasproject.org/index.html

 

Latest Events July 2009

Glade Festival

Intent 2x 15x13m Joined together and decorated by Liquid Fairy, Glade Festival 2009

Secret Garden Party, Huntingdon

Intents at the Secret Garden Party, 2009

Americana Show, Newark 2009

Painted Tipi at the Americana Show, July 2009

 

Glad to be at Glade

Liquid Faeries And GV at Glade 2009

Liquid Faeries|MySpace Videos

The interior gets the nylon treatment

We are down in windy Winchester today at Matterley Bowl, a natural amphitheatre sculpted out of the chalk downlands.  We are here for the Glade festival.  On all sides the site is bounded by 50m high downlnd banks. I’m looking down from the crew camping area on the circus big tops, giant tulips by Jigantics.com , festival flags and two chino intents Over The Moon has provided. They look great and have been decorated in fine style by the Liquid Faeries crew. See the link above to their Myspace site and a video of the festival set up.

Tent behind InSpiral

 

We were Over The Moon with Glastonbury 2009

Over The Moon Tents had an action packed 12 days away in Sunny Somerset to help put up tents for the Glastonbury Festival 2009.  We provided an Intent for the Rabbit Hole area in the Park Zone, a 25×14m Intent for the Glade area’s juice bar and a Yurt for the VIP camping at Windinglake Farm.

It was a lot of fun seeing the site come together and enjoy the buildup, the festival and the aftermath.  The scale of production and work that goes into the festival was staggering, and was matched by a creative flare that made us proud to be a part of.

The decor that IDSpiral’s crew put up in the Intent was a revelation and we made some good contacts and hope to work with them in the future.  We may be able to offer their decor services to other clients.

 

Intents at Glastonbury take shape as the festival is built.

We have been Over The Moon these past few days after installing two Intents at the Glastonbury Festival.  It has been a wonderful experience to be involved with the creation of the festival and see the HUGE site being transformed.  The site has grown massively since we last visited as eager ticket holders in 1997.  The Tipi village along the line of the hill above the site is very impressive, as is the sheer size of the site.  It takes over an hour to walk around the site now and that’s without the masses being here.

 

Looking across at the observation tower in the Park Zone

 

 There are 40,000! people involved in making the festival happen and the atmosphere is a delicious anticipationand easy going meetings and free flowing conversations with strangers bonded in the act of creating the event.  It is strange to be at the festival and see the familiar places but without that zing and white knuckle ride of the event when its underway.

 

Backstage at the Pyramid Stage. No sign of Bruce Sringsteen

 

Intent take shape behind the Giant Kata Tipis

We have erected a 15×13m Orange Intent behind 3 Giant Kata Tipis.  They will form the outer part of the Rabbit Hole area, with access to the Intent through a burrow/tunnel which must be navigated after answering a riddle.  All the crew are dressed as characters from the Alice in Wonderland story.  Over The Moon DJ’s will be playing inside the Intent which will be completed with a lit up dancefloor, a la “Saturday Night Fever”.

 

25x14m Intent for the Glade Area at Glastonbury

 

Intent at Bradford’s Mela

We had a nice sunny day yesterday putting up an Intent for a music performance at Bradford’s renowned Mela festival. Preparations were well underway and it looks to be a very colourful event. The production team were a lovely friendly bunch and nice to work with.

 

Melas originate from the Indian sub-continent (the word ‘Mela’ means ‘to meet’ in Sanskrit, the ancient Indian language), where they are traditionally a gathering of people celebrating their community, much like village fairs in Britain.

The first Bradford Mela is where it all began in the UK, way back in September 1988. It was a small scale event by today’s standards, held on playing fields above the University, but proved a resounding success, attracting over 10,000 visitors.

In the following years the Mela moved to a bigger venues to accommodate audience numbers which have grown to over 100,000 people, moving firstly to Lister Park and then to Peel Park, which is its current home.”

 

More info on here.
http://www.bradfordmela.org.uk/

The Intent awaits the musicians and crowd at Bradford's 2009 Mela Festival

 

Trousers made from recycled British army tents

Over The Moon Tents, and many of our clients,  love the smell and feel of traditional canvas. Now you can combine that love of canvas with fashion and recycling and grab yourself a pair of trousers made of army tent canvas.  Genius.

Canvas Army Tent Trousers

http://www.stabo.co.uk/Shop/mens/trouser.htm

 

Kokopelli is Over The Moon’s first 5.5m Painted Tipi

I spent most of yesterday painting a 5.5m Tipi.  It was a lof of fun and the weather was just right.  The Swallows in the barn roof seemed to take an interest in between nest building.  To get Kokopelli’s design on the tipi I erected a scaffold tower and used it to hang the canvas.

Tipi canvas hanging from Scaffold Tower

I awaited dusk to use a projector to place the image on the canvas and trace round.  The canvas was then laid out on the barn floor and painting began at 4pm and finished at 11.30.  I painted nearly non-stop and was entertained by www.littlestevensundergroundgarage.com playing some great music.  You can see the progress below. I added a red to the top of the canvas but it was too dark to take a pic.  The Tipi will be out this weekend and I will add more pics then.

Kokopelli is joined by our little promo tipi getting a lick of extra paint.

Painted Tipi with crop circle design door flap

So who is Kokopelli?

I first met Kokopelli on a t-shirt dancing in front of a full moon.  He is a common site in the south western United States. I liked the little figure and enjoyed reading his legend.

Kokopelli is a fertility deity, usually depicted as a humpbacked flute player , who has been venerated by some Native American cultures in the Southwestern United States. Like most fertility deities, Kokopelli presides over both childbirth and agriculture. He is also a trickster god and represents the spirit of music.

More info:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kokopelli
http://www.drlamay.com/kokopelli.htm

Kokopelli has been a totem for friends and I for many years and has proved a lucky mascot.

 

Gathering for the Green Minded

 The Big Green Gathering is a 5 day camping event which is currently located in the Mendip Hills in Somerset.  It has grown out of the original Green Gatherings of the 1980’s and the Green Fields of Glastonbury Music Festival.  It has developed organically in response to a desire from people within the green movement for a festival that was focused on Green issues.  Somewhere between 15,000 and 20,000 people are expected this year.

The Festival is innovating a greener approach to powering a modern day festival.  Festival Director, Peter Kemp said

“The equipment needed to harness natural energy comes in all shapes and sizes and many useful items are available at the festival, including solar powered torches, and radios or small solar and wind systems providing lighting for tents and stalls”

http://www.big-green-gathering.com/index.php?pageid=6

 

Garden Of Eden Summer Ball at the Oxford Union

Over The Moon Events provided tents, lighting, decor, DJ’s and sound systems for the Summer Ball at the Oxford Union. It was a prestigious event to be involved in as the Union has been the place where weekly debates are held and many famous UK and foreign politicians have learnt the art of debate. More info on the Oxford Union at Wikipedia

The black Intent's peeps out from the Oxford Union's courtyard

The events theme was the Garden of Eden and there was a choice of modern and old, black and white, tribal and urban tents with the courtyard filled with tipi’s, a yurt and a lovely black Intent.

 

The Yurt and Tipi's made a nice chill out space overlooked by the Oxford Union building.

 

 

It was the first booking we had for the black Intent and wasn’t she a beauty. This is a tent that cries out for a dancefloor, club type event inside.

The Black Intent makes her presence felt

 

Pudding In The Proof

We took advantage of the sunny dry day on Monday to add some fresh Nikwax proofing to our Orange Intent. The Intent will be forming part of the Rabbit Hole tents at this year’s Glastonbury and Glade festivals.

Spray The Day Away, Reproofing in Rodmell, Sussex, May 2009

 

Glastonbury founder Michael Eavis publicly supports Glade Festival

Glastonbury founder Michael Eavis has publicly supported Glade Festival in an open letter today. By supporting his festival’s successful export, the letter also gives the community of smaller UK festivals a boost.

Glastonbury is without doubt the undisputed star of the British festival landscape, and the creative inspiration for a plethora of other successful festival organisers. It is also the mothership that has provided hundreds of thousands of people with their first festival experience.

Michael Eavis’ letter read: “About ten years ago I persuaded Luke Piper, Glade Festival Director, to run a new area at Worthy Farm called ‘The Glade’. ‘Why the glade’ Luke said – ‘sounds like a perfume’ – ‘an opening in the woods’ I said—‘a perfect venue’. And so it was. So successful was The Glade, he asked to borrow the concept for a site in Newbury which worked too.

“Now, after a good few years the site has moved from Newbury to Winchester, a beautiful farm in a natural amphitheatre with lots more room – better access, and a lot less people living close by.

“The Glade Festival has lots of Glastonbury connections with thrills and feelings not dissimilar to our own, including programming and atmosphere that has form and reputation.

“If you couldn’t get a ticket for our show here at Glastonbury, thank you very much for trying, but would you mind me suggesting that you give Glade Festival a try? I don’t think you’ll regret it!”

OverTheMoonTents will be at both Glastonbury and Glade Festivals this coming summer. We will be providing an Orange 15×13m Intent for the Rabbit Hole area at both festivals. We are stoked up to be at both these great music festivals. Our DJ’s and lighting engineer will also be playing at both events. Come and say hello if you are there.

Our Orange Intent is excited to be able to welcome party people into her curvy embrace at Glastonbury and Glade this summer.

 

Painted Tipi Project Underway

We made a start on the Painted Tipi project this week. First up a little 1m diameter promo tipi. Nothing too large and unwieldly to handle. Traced the design out on the floor of the living room and used a mixture of acrylic fabric paint and some left-over green exterior paint. The fabric paint is much better and does not soak in so much. The back design was based on a crop circle.

When I grow up I want to be a 18 footer

Next up is a full size 18ft Tipi to get the paint treatment. Going to help draw the design out using Photoshop to create it and then project it on the canvas.

 

Joke from The Jester

Over The Moon’s crew has a Jester to keep it entertained and spirits up when working the long summer days.  The Jester provided a lovely tent related joke for us this week.

A man pays a visit to his doctor and tells him,

“On Monday night I dreamt I was a Tipi, and then on tuesday night I dreamt I was a Yurt.” 

“Hmm”, said the doctor pondering the meaning of these dreams. Then he exclaimed, ” Don’t worry, you are just Too Tense”.

 

The Jester strikes the funny bone again

 

Party tent in Portsmouth

The Over The Moon boys were working in the leafy surrounds of Sussex and Hampshire last week. It was a lovely week weather wise and the leafy green lanes looked great in the sunshine and with the leaves all bright and fresh. Our stay was helped by the great service we received at Stubbs Farm B&B

We enjoyed seeing Portsmouth for the first time and enjoyed being part of the Student Union Carnival day.

Flyer for Event in Portsmouth

 

Party Tent at Portsmouth SU Carnival

 

Wickerman Festival announces environmental first for festivals

At this years Wickerman Festival organisers will be recycling waste materials into power.  This is from their website.

An estimated 44 tonnes of rubbish will be gathered from the 2009 Wickerman Festival. Wrappers, packets, tins, cans and plastic bottles will be the main culprit with a few exotic materials thrown in. Rather than simply drop the flotsam and jetsam into the nearest council midden the Wickerman will transport it to the Ecodeco plant near Dumfries.

This state of the art waste treatment plant will shred, dry sieve and magnetically sort out mixed refuse turning it into fuel pellets, soil conditioner and recycled metals.

More info on
http://www.thewickermanfestival.co.uk/news.html

 

Tipi in The Times

Over The Moon Tipi as featured in The Times, April 18th 2009

Over The Moon Tipis featured in The Times newspaper on Saturday 18th April.  A tipi was used as back drop to a fashion feature in the saturday magazine supplement.

 

Helping Hand with Wood Green Animal Shelter

Over The Moon will be providing a Party Tent for the use of Wood Green Animal Shelter this coming Sunday, 19th April.  The tent will be in use for promotion of the shelter’s work with animals.  The location is Ely Cathedral which makes for a wonderful backdrop for the tent. Wood Green’s annual pet service will take place at 1.30pm. Everyone welcome including pets. 

Party Tent at Ely, April 19th 2009

Over The Moon provided a medieval pavilion for the same event two years and got some good photos from it.

http://www.woodgreen.org.uk/

Medieval Pavilion Tent for Wood Green Pet Service at Ely Cathedral, April 2007