CULTURE BORDERS BOOK FESTIVAL
Umbrellas are so last year. Welcome to the outdoor festival which uses wetsuits to protect visitors from the elements
Te Borders Book Festival has invested in tents made from material usually worn by swimmers and divers
BY NICOLA STOW O
rganising an outdoor festival in Scotland can be a tricky – and soggy – affair. Te unpredictable Scottish
weather has ruined scores of events over the years, with torrential rain turning sites into mudbaths, leaving festival-goers sodden and miserable. But events manager Olivia
McLean, who organises the Borders Book Festival, has discovered a solu- tion for keeping guests warm and dry: “giant wetsuits”, sourced from the balmy climes of South Africa, no less. Of course, she’s not suggesting
guests should wear them (though that might not be such a bad idea should the heavens really open). She’s talking tents. Stretchy tents specifically, made from MK4 fabric – the same material used to make wetsuits. Supplier Mark Paton, who set up his business, Stretch Tents Scotland, four years ago, travels to Cape Town to snap-up the springy canopies, which, as Olivia attests,
are proving to be a huge hit. She’s ordered five for this year’s four-day festival, which kicks off on June 16 in the stunning gardens of Har- mony House, Melrose. “When organising an outdoor
event in Scotland, the weather is al- ways going to be a risk,” she says. “I can do all the planning and prepar- ing in the world, but the weather is the one thing I cannot control. But should there be a downpour,
Mark’s stretch tents provide bril- liant protection from the elements. Tey’re the coolest, most amazing things – just like giant wetsuits. Tey’re made from the same mate- rial, with a waterproof exterior and an insulating lining, which keeps the heat in. Tey also need half the components that conventional mar- quees require, take less effort to put up, and are easier to transport – the whole lot fits in the back of a van. “Last year I used one stretch
tent for the book festival, but this year I’ve ordered five, so, if the weather is not kind to us, there will be plenty of cosy spaces to retreat to – including the bar, which will be installed inside one of the larger stretch tents,” adds Olivia. Now in its 13th year, the Brewin
“SHOULD THERE BE A DOWNPOUR, STRETCH TENTS PROVIDE BRILLIANT PROTECTION FROM THE ELEMENTS”
Olivia McLean, Borders Book Festival organiser
10 | EVENTSBASE | SUMMER 2016
Dolphin Borders Book Festival will feature 100 events on a wide variety of topics. Headline acts this year include thriller writer Frederick Forsyth, who makes a rare appear- ance, comedian Rory Bremner, Mike Rutherford, founder of rock legends Genesis, and comedian Sara Pascoe, who will be talking about her debut book, Animal: How a Woman is Made. Tere will be opportunities to
take part as well as spectate this year, with a variety of live music and theatre performances and workshops, a street market, tented
food village, gin and wine tastings, performances by Scottish Opera, and craft and activity workshops.
A VAST AMOUNT of work goes into organising the festival, but Olivia, 35, certainly has the experience; she started out in the industry 14 years ago and has helped manage a long list of high profile and international events, including Edinburgh Inter- national Festival, the Great North Run, T-in-the-Park and, more recently, the 2012 London Olym- pics and Glasgow Commonwealth Games in 2014. It’s the Borders Book Festival,
however, that remains closest to her heart. Born and raised in the Borders village of Gattonside, she has been the event’s manager since 2007. Te mother-of-three explains: “I
love organising the Borders Book Festival because I was brought up in the Borders, so it’s very dear to
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