Tent is a shelter consisting of sheets of fabric or other material draped over, attached to a frame of poles or attached to a supporting rope. While smaller tents may be free-standing or attached to the ground, large tents are usually anchored using guy ropes tied to stakes or tent pegs. In festival season or a more adventurous outdoor activity like wilderness or a forest trip, you will almost certainly have to bring your own tent. Tent designed for festivals are usually budget friendly but not the best quality, if you can afford, buy a good quality versatile tent that will also do for camping trips and other adventures.
Waterproofing is essential especially if you are in a festival at UK. The waterproofs of a tent is usually labelled by the hydrostatic head of its outer fabric. A good tent is easy to erect and it should be easy to carry also. Tents of different sizes and shapes are available in the market, choose according to your necessity, some types of tents are described under.
1- The basic ridge Tent
They had a pole at each end and sometimes a cross pole called a ridge holding up a tent-shaped roof that’s why called ridge tent. Ridge tents are especially stable and range from tiny one-person tents right up to large marquees. They are easy to set-up and still make good shelters today. Even in the largest units there’s limited height in most of the tent their main disadvantage is in head height.
2- Inflatable Tents
They are quite rare despite the fact as most people seem to have heard of inflatable tents. Inflatable tents can be expensive and surprisingly heavy but can be erected in just a few minutes. They needed few pegs at corners to erect.
3- Dome Tents
The basic shape bends a flexible pole into a half circle with both ends fixed to a strong tape or webbing strap running across the base of the tent, mostly as part of the groundsheet.
Two flexible poles crossing in the middle give a square dome, three poles a hexagon. The sides are more vertical so overall headroom is better across a wider floor area. Stability is good in smaller models but, unlike the ridge tent, domes can get less stable as they scale up in size.
4- Geodesic and Semi-Geodesic Tents
The term geodesic is a mathematical one .In fact a ‘geodesic’ line was the shortest route between two points on earth. Nowadays, it’s used to describe a tent where the poles crisscross over the surface, intersecting to form triangles. This distributes the stress across the structure, making it the most stable type of tent for extreme weather conditions. This type of tent is well suited for climbers. Semi-geodesic tents use similar principles but generally fewer poles for slightly less extreme conditions. Nevertheless, they are still normally produced in small sizes for those who are likely to pitch them on mountains or in windy or exposed area.
5- Instant or Quick-pitch Tents
A long, coiled, sprung frame is permanently fitted into the fabric of the tent. The tent becomes a circular package by twisting the frame.
These tents were really only suitable for good weather conditions some years ago, but now considered best for all weathers, complete with inner tents and sleeping space for as many as five people. However, many are still best kept for a night or two at a festival or for the children.
Instant tents are made by a number of suppliers and are the latest in a range of tents that really do erect themselves.
6- The Khyam System
Khyam is the largest manufacturer brand of tents whose range of tents has been on the market for more than a decade. The system of this type is based on a simple sprung ‘knuckle’ or elbow joint. This can hold a flexible pole straight or be ‘broken’ to let the pole bend. Putting the tent up is as simple as getting it out of its bag and letting the poles fall into the right position, the skeleton of tent is permanently fitted to the fabric. The poles are straightened using elbow joints to allow the tent to get its final shape. Just be careful not to pinch your finger.
7- Tunnel Tents
Another way of using flexible poles is to bind them into semi-circles and stand them up in a line to create a tunnel tent because domes don’t necessarily give the large useable space. On the other way flexible poles are used to bind them into semi-circles and stand them up in a line to create a tunnel tent. Other tunnels use strong rigid poles to form their structure.
These come in a huge variety of sizes and styles and are perhaps the most common form of family tents found on campsites today.
8- Large Family Tents
These tent are combination of dome and tunnel because you have a dome for the enough living area and may sleep in a tunnel. Tent designers are coming up with ever more complex designs and scaling up their favorite small tent shapes into bigger family tents.
Generally speaking, tunnels work better in bigger sizes but they can act effectively as kites if the wind catches them before they are properly pegged out. Most manufacturers now produce tents that both have of styles and often work well.
9- Frame Tents
They use an extra steel rigid framework of straight poles with angled joints and can still offer lots of space including good headroom, plus stability when properly erected. However frame tents tend to be heavier and take somewhat longer to put up than other tents.
10- Pod Living Tents
Some of the largest tents on the market these days are pod-style. They have a central living area with some sleeping areas leading off, like spokes from the hub of a wheel.
In the family setting, children can have their own spaces with good air gaps between them. However, there are some disadvantages to this style of tent. Apart from the fact that they include a larger volume of fabric than an equivalent tunnel tent, making them heavier to transport and generally more challenging to erect. Furthermore, they take enough space.
. 11- Vis-a-Vis Tents
The trend started in France where a large central part of the tent would offer standing headroom, and an annexe room off each side would offer two sleeping compartments. Once domes and tunnels started to grow, tent designers added extra rooms to the basic structure these two compartments faced one another. Vis-à-vis tents can be domes or tunnels and indeed, some of the very first ones were square frame tents.
Also Read about Instant Camping Ideas
