What event deliveries actually involve

In August, we delivered a full lorry load to Big Feastival in the Cotswolds: pallets of stock, wrapped equipment, a wooden crate and a good number of bottles of prosecco, for one of the festival’s trading and hospitality partners. It’s a fairly typical job for us and a useful example of what event deliveries involve in practice.

What makes event deliveries different

A standard delivery has some flexibility built in. If something goes wrong, there’s usually a next working day to put it right. Event deliveries don’t work that way. The site has a fixed opening time, it often only exists for a day or a weekend, and once it opens there’s no second attempt.

That changes what matters. Access is rarely straightforward: a farm track instead of a loading bay, a marshal directing traffic, a window of an hour or two to get unloaded before the site closes to vehicles. The load is usually mixed rather than a single item, so it needs sorting and handling correctly on arrival, not just left at a gate.

What we delivered to Big Feastival

The brief was to get a full lorry load onto site and unloaded before the festival opened to the public.

Getting there meant a temporary access route across a working farm, and coordinating with site marshals to bring a curtain-sided lorry close enough to a marquee to unload safely. The load was pallets of stock, mostly bottled drinks including a substantial run of prosecco, alongside wrapped equipment and a wooden crate, all destined for one trading area.

None of that cargo was unusual on its own. What made it an event delivery, rather than a standard drop, was getting a mixed load there correctly sorted, in one access window, for a trading partner with one chance to be fully stocked before their first customer arrived.

Five things to check before booking an event delivery

If you’re arranging deliveries for a stand, stall or trading area, these are worth confirming before the week of the event, not the night before.

• The site’s delivery window, not just its opening time. Vehicle access often closes well before the public arrives, sometimes hours earlier. Check this with the organiser directly rather than working it out from the published opening time.
• Ground and access conditions. Grass, narrow gateways and farm tracks all rule out certain vehicles. Tell your courier what the access is actually like, not what you assume it can take.
• A named contact on site to receive the delivery. A general event enquiries number is not the same as someone standing at the marquee who knows a lorry is due.
• Whether you’ll need restocking, not just the first delivery. If you’re selling anything that can sell out, such as drinks or food, agree in advance whether a follow-up delivery is realistic and how quickly it could happen.
• A buffer for build-day chaos. Setup days are busy: multiple suppliers, marshals, traffic queuing for the same gate. Booking your delivery for the last possible slot leaves no room if the site is running behind.

Matching the vehicle to the job

Event sites rarely suit one type of vehicle, which is why it’s worth telling your courier about the site before they book one in. A few examples of how that plays out in practice:

• Farm or field sites with grass access, like Big Feastival, often need a vehicle that can get across uneven or soft ground without getting stuck, which rules out some larger rigids.
• City centre venues and conference halls usually have designated loading bays with height or width restrictions, so the vehicle needs to fit the bay, not just the load.
• Multi-drop trade shows, where several exhibitors are on the same site, benefit from a smaller vehicle that can move between unloading points quickly rather than one large lorry blocking access for everyone else.
• Large single deliveries, such as a full stand build or a stocked bar, need enough capacity to go in one trip, since a second trip may not be possible once the site closes to vehicles.

This is one of the reasons we run a fleet of 8 different vehicle types rather than a single standard van. It means the vehicle can be chosen around the site, not the other way round.

Beyond festivals

Big Feastival is one example, but the same points apply to trade shows, conferences, agricultural shows and pop-up retail events. An exhibitor’s stand materials arriving at a conference centre, or a caterer’s stock reaching a one-day show, face the same fixed window and the same lack of a second chance. A courier partner who has done event deliveries before will usually flag the obvious problems, like a site with no proper access for a large vehicle, before they become a problem on the day.

How Advance Couriers can help

We’ve been solving delivery problems for businesses since 1991, and event deliveries are a natural extension of the same-day work we do for manufacturers, professional services and SMEs.

• A fleet of 30 vehicles across 8 different types, so we can match the right vehicle to the site and the load
• Offices in Worcester, Redditch and Telford, with a fleet that covers the whole country
• A 24 hour, 365 day service, because events don’t run to office hours
• Decades of experience with the access and timing problems that come with temporary sites

Frequently asked questions

Do you deliver to festival and event sites? Yes. We regularly deliver to temporary sites including festivals, shows and exhibitions, and we’re used to working around site access, marshalling and tight unloading windows.

Can you handle mixed or palletised loads for events? Yes. Our fleet covers 8 vehicle types, so whether you need a single pallet moved or a full lorry load of mixed stock and equipment, we can match the right vehicle to the job.

Do you offer same-day delivery for last-minute event needs? Yes. Same-day delivery is at the core of what we do, which makes us a good fit when an event throws up an unexpected or last-minute requirement.

Do you deliver outside Worcestershire? Yes. We’re based in Worcester with offices in Redditch and Telford, and we deliver nationwide.

Get in touch

If you’ve got deliveries booked in for an event, get in touch with Advance Couriers before the day itself and we’ll talk through vehicle, timing and access with you.