jj_whitestick Posted August 22, 2011 Share Posted August 22, 2011 Hi All, I wonder if you can help me - I'm part of a bijou outdoor music festival up north, (couple of stages and some tents) in the autumn, and as part of the setup I was looking to put in about 12 flagpoles to mark out different areas - Is there a quick easy way to do this that looks nice and wont be in danger of toppling onto crowds? I'm thinking they might be about 5m tall with a 'T' bar clamped across the top for the flag (which will just be cable tied). Thanks for your help. JJ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
photographic08 Posted August 22, 2011 Share Posted August 22, 2011 you can get really tall fiberglass flagpoles, which will bend at the top into a tear drop shape so you can have a banner type flag. They are pretty light and just have a 1m stake which goes half into the ground and half into the bottom of the pole to keep them up. The are also telescopic so can be transported easily. They are mainly designed for advertising, so you can have flags printed to go with them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robin D Posted August 22, 2011 Share Posted August 22, 2011 I agree. I've used them up to 10M tall. However, in a real wind you need to fix them to something but that's relatively easy to achieve. Robin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jj_whitestick Posted August 22, 2011 Author Share Posted August 22, 2011 Cheers guys, though as we're on a small budget I was hoping to do something with scaff to keep costs down - the bespoke flagpoles, were a bit pricey, and I'm still a bit worried they could be trashed by wind/drunken fest goers. Thanks though! JJ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jack s/lfx Posted August 22, 2011 Share Posted August 22, 2011 Hi, If you get a fence post hammer basher type thing like the one here you can drive a length of scaffold into the ground. If you leave about a metre of pole above ground you can then attach the required length of scaffold parallel to it with 2 scaff swivel couplers for the flag pole. Of course the length of scaff above and below ground will be specific to your circumstances and those of the site, and the conditions of the ground. You will find you need to protect the fittings at the base with something to stop people bashing themselves on them. Maybe this can be something artistic. Jack Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J Pearce Posted August 22, 2011 Share Posted August 22, 2011 A fork lift/telehandler can do very well at pushing poles in, but remember to have a system of getting them out before you put them in! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MGLX Posted August 22, 2011 Share Posted August 22, 2011 One thing I shall add to this is to ensure there are no services in the ground where you want to put your flag poles in. I have seen on a number of occasions people trying to drive a scaff pole into a 4inch cast iron sewer, luckily they stopped before it broke, but it could easily have been the three phase cable 1metre away!! Many farms etc will lay water pipes etc relatively shallow and have them un charted so beware! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jack s/lfx Posted August 22, 2011 Share Posted August 22, 2011 I forgot to mention earlier that I have seen people climb up scaff flag poles like these so please be aware that that may be an issue. Good security can help avoid this. It's all the more alarming if there's some festoon lighting strung up at the top and the pole looks like its going to topple! Jack Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sam Jelfs Posted August 23, 2011 Share Posted August 23, 2011 Along the same lines as Jon's suggestion, check with your local farmers, I know the farmer that owns the fields at one of the festivals I do has a post driver attachment for his tractor, makes easy work of getting them in. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jj_whitestick Posted August 23, 2011 Author Share Posted August 23, 2011 Thanks everyone - thats brilliant stuff. We probably cant afford a telehandler, so thats a god call on the local farmer. If not its back to a big mallet. Cheers guys! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andy_s Posted August 23, 2011 Share Posted August 23, 2011 One thing I shall add to this is to ensure there are no services in the ground where you want to put your flag poles in. I have seen on a number of occasions people trying to drive a scaff pole into a 4inch cast iron sewer, luckily they stopped before it broke, but it could easily have been the three phase cable 1metre away!! Many farms etc will lay water pipes etc relatively shallow and have them un charted so beware! more worrying would be a gas main. The man in charge of safety at Glastonbury told us that the gas main serving the west of England runs under one of the camping fields there, and was less than a metre from the surface at some points. He then showed us an aerial photo of somewhere else (can't remember where, another rural location, possibly not in the UK) where the gas main had been ruptured by a JCB digger. Of the digger, there was no sign. This was because it had been vapourized. The crater was reminiscent of the huge mines exploded below the German lines on the Western Front during WW1. (who says H&S seminars at PLASA can't be interesting?) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dbuckley Posted August 24, 2011 Share Posted August 24, 2011 Yeah, watcvh out for big gas pipes. They can be pressurised to 150 bar. Years ago the landscape was littered with gasometers, now they just use the piping system as a storage system, pump up the pressure and the gas is stored away. Source: Ex-colleague some years ago, who did networking for British Gas, who apparently have the third largest microwave network in the UK. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MGLX Posted August 24, 2011 Share Posted August 24, 2011 http://leonsteyn.blo...-pipe-whos.html He then showed us an aerial photo of somewhere else (can't remember where, another rural location, possibly not in the UK) where the gas main had been ruptured by a JCB digger. Of the digger, there was no sign. This was because it had been vapourized. The crater was reminiscent of the huge mines exploded below the German lines on the Western Front during WW1. (who says H&S seminars at PLASA can't be interesting?) this one? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cameroncoats Posted August 25, 2011 Share Posted August 25, 2011 Saw 20-30 fairly big (6m ish) 'bent pole type' banners completely ripped to shreds at a small festival a few weeks ago... ...and I dont remember it being that windy either :blink:. Hopefully most of them are a bit more 'wind resistant', but this is definitely something to watch out for :P Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andy_s Posted August 25, 2011 Share Posted August 25, 2011 http://leonsteyn.blo...-pipe-whos.html He then showed us an aerial photo of somewhere else (can't remember where, another rural location, possibly not in the UK) where the gas main had been ruptured by a JCB digger. Of the digger, there was no sign. This was because it had been vapourized. The crater was reminiscent of the huge mines exploded below the German lines on the Western Front during WW1. (who says H&S seminars at PLASA can't be interesting?) this one? I believe it was... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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