A 10x10 booth that survives the wind

If you do outdoor shows, your tent will meet real wind. Not a breeze. The kind that comes across a field at two in the afternoon with nothing in front of it. I have watched tents go over, and every single one had the same thing in common: not enough weight on the legs. So this is the guide I wish someone had handed me before my first outdoor show.

Buy the tent once

The cheap tent at the hardware store is about the same money as a good one once you replace it. I run the Eurmax 10x10. It is the sturdy one. The frame is commercial grade with a full truss, the legs lock with thumb buttons instead of pins that fall out, and once it is up it does not wobble.

The part nobody thinks about until they have dragged a canopy across a gravel lot is the bag. Eurmax makes an L-shaped roller bag that stands up on its own, and one person can move it. That sounds small. On the fourth show of the season it is the whole reason you are still doing shows.

Get straight legs, not slanted. Slanted legs eat a foot on every side, and a 10 by 10 space is already smaller than it sounds. Most shows want a white top, so unless you know otherwise, buy white.

Weight on every leg, every time

Stakes are useless on asphalt, and half the shows I do are on asphalt. Most shows will not let you set up without weight on every leg anyway, and the ones that do not check are the ones where you will wish they had.

I use the Eurmax leg weights. They are bottles, so they travel empty and you fill them at the show. Water gets you about 88 pounds across the four, sand gets you about 124. A strap wraps each one around a leg. Put the strap up high on the leg, not at the foot, so it cannot slide off when the leg bounces.

How much is enough? Twenty pounds a leg is the floor. On a windy day I want forty. If the show is on a hill or by open water, I want more than that, and I will hang a bag of sand from the corners too.

The setup order that keeps you out of trouble

1. Legs out, frame half open, weights on before the top goes on. A frame without a top is not a sail yet.
2. Top on, corners strapped, then open the frame the rest of the way and lock it.
3. Set the height. Lower is stronger. I run mine one notch below full unless the show is dead calm.
4. Check the weights are strapped high and tight. Then check again after lunch, because they slide.

Things I learned the hard way

• Never leave a tent up overnight with the top on unless it is weighted, walled and tied to something that is not going anywhere. Take the top off and let the wind blow through the frame.
• Sidewalls keep rain off your product, and they also turn the tent into a box kite. On a windy day, walls off.
• Tie the corners of two tents together if you have a neighbor. Two tents tied are a lot harder to lift than one.
• Your tablecloth will go first. A fitted one stays put. The open-back kind lets you get at the bins underneath without lifting a skirt every time.

That is the whole list. A good frame, weight on every leg, and the sense to take the top down when the sky turns. Everything above is in the Gear Shop with a note on why I picked it.