what colour tent?

I'm saving up to buy a tent. The few markets I've looked at don't seem to care what colour, so I get to pick what works best :-)

I live in S/E Qld so very hot and humid. Which makes me lean away from the darker colours. I was thinking white, but I'm worried about it looking dirty, also that the shade it provide wouldn't be as solid as a darker colour.

The choices I have are white, black, light blue, navy blue, green.

From what I've read around the forum, it's best to get a white tent because a lot of festivals tell you that you have to have a white tent...

But I don't have any experience with that... One thing I will say is to make sure you get an EZ-Up tent, or something with a similar structure because other tents take forever to set up... (Guess that's my own fault for not wanting to spend out...) Haha

Most around here use navy, not that they are asked too, they just do. I have learnt about the ez up. Helped a friend with her's once. We had no idea what we were doing and still got it up in less then 2 mins. That convinced me. Lol

white white white white white white white.

The colour of your tent will dictate the colour of your light while you are painting and you don't want your kids looking green or red or whatever, you want white light to paint. I've had mine for a couple years now with weekly use during the summer/fall and it looks fine.

I had a light blue one that was silvery gray on the inside and it did not reflect any color. So before you get stuck with a white one, see if the inside of the tent is another color.

-Metina

Bast I have white and I am SE qld too. I have had it for nearly a year and it still looks pretty good. It gets used weekly.

White is totally fine too, I just meant that some might want a certain color to match their business colors.

Best of luck!
-Metina

You get a white canopy, because some (most high end) festivals require it. I used to do many outdoor festivals selling my art. You can then decorate the tent to suite the colors you want. Adding drapery to hide the white tent walls and legs was common.
I had an EZ up, and they get damaged easily in the wind, also they are jokingly referred to as kites by the art festival regulars, so lots of extra weights are necessary to go with the sand bags it comes with. A common way to make the weights is to fill thick pvc pipe with quick set concrete and giant screw eyes sunk into one end and a cap on the other end. The rope goes through the screw eye and tied to the tent.
My last year of festivals I had a natural disaster at each one. Flooding until I was ankle deep in mud, wind storm that nearly took my tent even with the extra weights, being assigned a spot over a storm drain that someone had vomited in during 100 degree weather, snow storm on Easter weekend (in Texas of all places). My tent leg was damaged during the wind storm one and I haven't gotten around to replacing it yet.

If you're going to be on grass, you can also get the big metal screw thingys for tying up big dogs into the ground (does that description make sense?)... I have 4 of them, but can only use them at certain festivals since not all of them are in a park with grass. Concrete is nice for not being as muddy, but it's a bugger to find a way to tie down.

Also some venues on grass ban the stakes as well.
Another bit of advice for grassy venues where you might be facing some rain - get those foam locking tiles to cover your "floor". I had one show where it rained all 4 days and the promoters covered the ground, even that inside the tents, with a mixture of hay and manure. It was awful. It made the ground safer, but it stunk like nobody's business.

what about a black tent with propper lights on the inside? I'm planning to have one and instal sort of "par led lights" on the inside. Not the colored ones but the whites.

I think that would get extremely hot... maybe not as much of a big deal in Belgium, I don't know... but with temps getting over 40C here in the summer time, I'd die under a black canopy.

yup, can't do that dark. It's autumn here and I'm getting really hot and sun burned. Kids are coming to me sweaty.

I got the white tent, have used it once and am happy. The white is reflecting the sun a lot so still need to be a bit sun careful but it's so much cooler and there was a heavy shower which would have ruined my paints if I didn't have the gazebo, so I am so very grateful that I brought the cheaper one now rather then saving up and waiting.

If this can last me a year I'll be happy, I'll be using it 6 times a month so it's going to get a work out. I figure the next one will be the top brand one, but for now I'm happy and really looking forward to decorating it :-D

What brand did you end up with? I am looking for an inexpensive tent to get started with.

I got an gaze pro from ebay. $170 free delivery has walls and sand bags. no wheel on the carry bag, and you have to be careful when pushing in the buttons. i love it though and I'm happy with it. Saving up for an oz trail but don't think ill need it for a while.

That's the exact one I have. It will nearly be a year that I've had mine although I only use mine once a week. Yep the little buttons fall in and you can't get them out, but I just have some thick screws that I pop in and it's fine.

What do you do for 6 times in the month? Do you do the markets somewhere? Enjoy it you little tent x

I do only markets at the moment. One is every week, but I think I'm going to stop that one. Not earning enough to make up for the time away from my kids. Replacing it with another one, that fits in much better with our family and won't require the gazebo. I also do a fortnightly market.