Festival Equipment Hire

Running a food or drink area at a festival means working in conditions that aren't kind to borrowed kitchen equipment. Hired furniture and catering kit arrives clean, gets collected dirty, and doesn't come out of your own storage between events.

What You'll Need

Festivals, street food markets, beer festivals and outdoor music events share the same core equipment needs: surfaces for food prep and service, seating for visitors, and bar equipment for drinks. Quantities depend on your footfall estimate and the number of vendors or service points.

• Folding trestle table hire — 6ft trestles are the workhorse of festival catering; use as prep surfaces, service counters and display tables
• Folding chair hire — lightweight seating for visitor areas and food courts; they stack flat and are easy to set out across a large site
• Poseur table hire — bar and drinks areas work well at poseur height; they create a natural bar counter and keep service comfortable for staff
• Glassware hire — pint glasses and half-pint glasses for beer festivals; wine glasses and jugs for food and wine events
• Catering equipment — chafing dishes for hot food service without electricity; serving trays, tongs, ladles and gastronorm containers for food vendors
• Bar accessories — bar trays, ice buckets, bottle openers and bar mats for drinks service areas

Planning Your Order

For a beer festival with 10 vendor stalls, each stall typically needs one or two 6ft trestle tables as a serving counter, plus additional tables behind for stock and equipment. A visitor seating area for 100 people needs around 100 chairs and 25 trestle tables. Scale from there based on your site plan and expected peak footfall.

Chafing dishes are the most practical solution for hot food service without mains power. Each dish holds around 9 litres and runs on a fuel canister. Plan for one dish per food item you're keeping hot, and order spare canisters if service runs longer than two hours, as a standard canister burns for roughly that long.

For large outdoor sites, confirm delivery vehicle access before you finalise the order. Delivery vehicles need firm ground or hardstanding to unload. If your site has field access only, soft ground, or vehicle size restrictions, raise this when you place the order so the team can plan the delivery logistics accordingly.

Delivery and Collection

Expo Hire delivers seven days a week to all areas of England and Wales. Delivery and collection starts from £40, calculated at checkout by distance from the depot. The standard hire period covers delivery the day before your event and collection the day after.

For multi-day festivals, discuss extended hire periods with the team before ordering, as standard pricing covers one delivery and one collection.

How to Order

Browse the full hire catalogue, add items to your basket, and place your order online with live stock levels. For large events or bespoke requirements, call the team to discuss. See the how to order page for full details.