Tried & True Strategies for Windy Days
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Twenty Years of Experience Says: 40 Pounds Per Leg
Kate’s Kreations Pawtique | Handmade dog/cat Over the Collar and Scrunchie bandanas, pet bows/bowties, Snuffle Balls and other pet themed items.
Kate has been vending for 20 years, and the advice she received when she was first starting is still what she follows today:
Use 40 pounds of weight on every canopy leg.
It’s simple, but after two decades of shows, it’s a recommendation that has stood the test of time.
The Inexpensive Solution: Water Jugs
Ryan Bridge | Ryan Bridge “The BugMan” has been using LIVE insects and other Arthropods to help teach Entomology since 1995.
Ryan keeps his wind protection inexpensive and practical: gallon water jugs tied to the bottom of each canopy leg.
They’re cheap, easy to transport empty if you can fill them onsite, and the water can be put to use after the event. He’s also used cinder blocks as another straightforward weighting option.
Sometimes the simplest solution really does work.
(We heard from Judy Weaver, Fort Muncy Garden Center, and she also suggested plastic milk jugs filled with water and tied to canopy ropes.)
Don’t Just Secure the Tent—Windproof the Whole Booth
Kirsta's Creations | Crocheted plushes and fidgets
Kirsta has been vending for about a year and a half, and she’s already encountered enough windy shows to develop a whole-booth strategy.
She normally uses 20-pound sandbag-style weights on each canopy leg and doubles that to 40 pounds per leg when wind is expected. She also lowers the canopy from its full height on especially windy days. Her philosophy? She’d rather have a tall customer duck slightly than give the wind more opportunity to get underneath the canopy and lift it.
But her advice goes beyond the tent itself. Shelving, tiered displays and lightweight fixtures can all become liabilities, so she recommends clamps, peg-hook stoppers and clips wherever possible. Delicate merchandise may need to come down from elevated displays and sit safely on the table.
And canopy walls? Kirsta has learned they can be both friend and foe. They’re wonderful in rain, but strong wind can catch a wall and send it crashing into your display. On windy days, she suggests either leaving walls off or arranging the booth so a wall isn’t positioned directly behind merchandise.
Her best reminder: Sometimes a simpler display is a safer display—and customers will understand.
When It’s Really Windy, Double Up
Kringlis Crafts recommends a minimum of 40 pounds of weight per canopy leg. If high winds or thunderstorms are in the forecast, they increase that to 80 pounds per leg and also secure weight to the upper corners of the tent frame.
Other options can work too, including PVC pipes filled with concrete or sandbags. The downside to sandbags is that they can get wet, dirty, and eventually tear.
DIY Heavyweights That Have Lasted More Than a Decade
Timber Creek Turnings | Karl went the DIY route—and built a set of canopy weights that has served him for more than 10 years.
He used 4-inch-diameter, three-foot-long Schedule 40 PVC pipe, capped one end and added a large eye bolt, then filled each pipe with concrete. He also attached a handle to the middle of each weight to make carrying them easier.
At the show, Karl hangs one from each canopy corner using an adjustable strap and secures the bottom of the weight to the canopy leg with Velcro.
Each finished weight comes in at approximately 45 pounds.
And after a decade of experience using them, Karl is unequivocal: 45 pounds per corner is the minimum he would use.
