Cheap Banners At Festivals: A Public Safety Risk
The appeal of low-cost materials and cheap banners makes sense. If you’re hosting a festival or large event, you need to cut down on costs wherever you can! But keep in mind that when it comes to festival and stage banners, quality and reliability equals safety.
Acoustic Transparency
When planning a festival, you want to be sure you’re delivering quality performances. Therefore, you need to consider stage aesthetics as well as sound. Bands and performers want to audience to hear them without distortion.
Acoustic transparency is about maintaining acoustic fidelity as sound passes through screen material. An acoustically transparent material allows speakers to be positioned behind the banner, maximizing the viewing (aesthetic) and listening (acoustic) experiences.
High Quality Vs. Cheap Banners
Stage banners are not the place to cut corners and opt for cheap banners. If you’re looking for less expensive banner materials, Plastic Roll Banners are a great option for use elsewhere around a festival or venue.
However, when it comes to stage banners, high quality materials and experienced companies can make a world of difference. You want to make sure you’ve made appropriate considerations when purchasing stage backdrops and band scrims.
High quality mesh banners will provide optimal acoustic transparency and still maintain visual integrity. JFest opted to use 30/70 mesh banners (less material) for maximum safety and wind durability. Because they went with high quality stage banners, the did not have to compromise on visual integrity!
The Safety Risk of Cheap Banners
Not only do high quality banner materials maintain acoustic fidelity, they can also save lives. Cheap banners may seem like a good idea until realize just how risky they can be!
Just as sound traveling through high quality mesh in important for festival banners, so to is the blow-through quality of banners. When it comes to speaker tower banners and stage backdrops, the last thing you want is for the banners to become wind sails.
Unfortunately, that’s exactly what happened at the Indiana State Fair in 2011. High wind gusts turned the stage banners into deadly wind sails, bringing down the stage. That tragedy left 5 dead and dozens more injured.
It’s disasters like this that remind us the value of quality materials whenever public safety is at hand.
Conclusion
There are certainly many costs and considerations to hosting a festival. Performers, aesthetics, and layouts are all dependent on audience.
However, regardless of the theme of your event, we urge you to consider safety and quality above all else. Cheap banners may seem appealing, but we guarantee you will be pleased you went with the best! NorthCoast Banners staff are highly trained and experienced to help you find the best quality, safest stage and festival banners to fit your budget.
