Event display arches are one of our specialties here at Inflatable Anything. Over the years, our inflatable arches have marked start and finish lines for races of all kinds, welcomed guests to celebrations and events, served as backdrops for displays, and even formed part of an inflatable bowling alley!
Indian Motorcycles was headed to the Cooly Rocks On Festival, and they wanted to use an eye-catching inflatable event display arch as the backdrop for their space there. If you’ve never heard of the Cooly Rocks On Festival, you’ve been missing out. Held in Queensland along the beautiful Gold Coast, it’s an annual celebration of 40s and 50s music, vehicles and style. Think rock and roll, rockabilly and swing. Hot rods and poodle skirts. And motorcycles, of course! Motorcycles never go out of style, and they’re especially iconic to the rock culture of the Elvis era.
We couldn’t wait to get to work on another one-of-a-kind masterpiece, especially one that would be part of such a fun event.
Design Inspiration
The folks at Indian Motorcycles had seen some of our previous event display arches and particularly liked one we had done for car manufacturer Harrop, which included angled corners and a custom extruding box along the top of the arch. They wanted us to make them something similar in their signature maroon colour. The box would add a little extra 'oomph' compared to a plain arch design, helping their display to stand out and catch the eyes of festival-goers. And of course, this box area would be the perfect spot to display their brand name.
Since their area at the event was going to be quite large, including a merchandise area as well as (of course) motorcycles, they wanted the event display arch to be 6m (W) X 5m (H). That’s on the bigger side — but we’ve done bigger! We knew that with our team’s extensive experience the size would be no problem.
Stability is always a factor in the design of large custom inflatables, especially when they’re going to be used at an outdoor event. The inclusion of 2.5m T-legs would help to stabilise the arch and reduce the number of tethers required to hold it upright. The extruding box made it even more essential that T-legs be used for extra stability.
The Dye Job
When a brand has a signature colour, it’s important to match it as closely as possible. Luckily, using the CMYK colour process, our digital printer was able to achieve just the right shade of maroon. We used the full surface print method to dye the PVC panels that would form the event display arch. The white lettering and logos stood out sharply against the rich, vivid maroon background. It looked fantastic, and would definitely grab the attention of festival-goers! With that accomplished, we were ready to move on to assembly.
Raising the Arch
When it comes to the choice of material — polyester or PVC (polyvinyl chloride) — we have to consider a number of factors. For example: the size and shape of the inflatable, and whether it’s for indoor or outdoor use. The Cooly Rocks On Festival is an outdoor event, which meant the arch would have to withstand any and all weather that came its way during the 4-day duration of the festival. PVC is waterproof and easy to wipe clean, making it an excellent choice for outdoor festival conditions. It’s also more rigid than polyester, which helps contribute to the overall sturdiness of such a large arch.
Due to the size of this event display arch, which would necessitate an external blower to stay inflated, there was really only one option for joining the PVC panels together. Welding works for smaller inflatables that don’t require a blower, but sewn panels are the only way to go for a piece like this.
Multiple D-rings were added, both near the top of the arch and on the T-legs, to ensure the arch could be securely anchored with ropes. The T-legs also provided a convenient location for the attachment of the external blower; we installed a blower pipe in both legs.
One last step: the test inflation. Success! Having passed our rigorous quality control, the event display arch was festival-ready.
Ready to Rock and Roll!
Even though we had a tight deadline for this project, our team of experts had no problem at all getting the event display arch completed in time for the festival. Before long, it was in the hands of our satisfied customer — and they were off for 4 days of retro rocking and rolling!
