Outdoor Event Space Hire in Kent: How to Choose a Field, Festival Site or Showground

By the Kent Event Centre Events Team. Written from the Kent Showground at Detling, near Maidstone, where we hire out more than 200 acres of outdoor space for concerts, festivals, country shows, canine and equine events, park and ride operations and film unit bases, alongside over 30 large public events every year.

Quick answer

Outdoor event space hire in Kent means paying for land plus the infrastructure that makes that land usable: mains power and water, welfare and toilets, hard standing, vehicle access, secure perimeter and parking. A flat green field on its own is the cheap part. The expensive part is everything you have to truck in when the field has nothing.

Kent has five broad types of outdoor event site: council parks, private farmland, historic estates and castles, motorsport and leisure venues, and showgrounds. Showgrounds are the only category built from the ground up for large temporary events, which is why festival, concert and country show organisers gravitate to them.

Before you commit to any site, check three things: whether it holds a premises licence or whether you will need a Temporary Event Notice, whether the local Safety Advisory Group needs 12 weeks of notice for your attendance figures, and what services already exist in the ground. Get those three right and the rest is logistics.

Looking for a site now? See the outdoor spaces available for hire at the Kent Event Centre, or talk to our events team on 01622 630975.

What counts as an outdoor event space?

An outdoor event space is any open-air area hired for a temporary event, from a single-day dog show to a three-day music festival with a build and break period either side.

In practice, organisers use the term to cover very different things:

• Green field site. Grass, no permanent services. Everything is brought in.
• Serviced event site. Grass or hard standing with mains power, water and drainage already in the ground.
• Showground. A permanent event site with buildings, roads, parking, welfare and a secure perimeter, designed for repeat large-scale use.
• Hardstanding or car park. Tarmac or compacted surface, usually for vehicle displays, markets, park and ride or driver training.

The word “field” hides an enormous cost difference. Two neighbouring fields can differ by tens of thousands of pounds in delivery cost purely because one has a three-phase supply and a water main and the other does not.

The five types of outdoor event site in Kent, compared

What do you actually need on an outdoor site?

This is the checklist we work through with organisers at Detling. Use it on any site you view, not just ours.

Power. How many supply points, what capacity, and where are they? Generator hire, fuel, spill kits and a standby unit for critical loads add up fast on an unserviced field.

Water and drainage. Potable water for catering and welfare, plus somewhere for waste water to go. Bowsers and tankering are a recurring cost across a multi-day event.

Welfare and toilets. Calculate against your peak attendance and your alcohol policy, not your total ticket sales. Existing permanent blocks reduce hire, servicing and cleaning costs.

Ground conditions and hard standing. Ask what the site does in sustained rain, whether there is hard standing near the halls or stage positions, and whether trackway is normally needed. Ground failure is the single most common reason a UK outdoor event loses money.

Vehicle access and entrances. Multiple gates let you separate contractor traffic, public arrivals and emergency access. One shared gate creates a queue on the public highway, which is exactly what a Safety Advisory Group will question.

Perimeter and security. A permanent perimeter fence removes a significant line from a ticketed event budget and makes overnight security straightforward.

Parking. For a public event in a rural county like Kent, most of your audience arrives by car. Plan on a realistic two to three people per vehicle and check the site can absorb that on grass without a wet weather crisis.

Wet weather contingency. Ask what the fallback is. Sites with covered space next to the field, such as exhibition halls, let you move a stage, a bar or a whole traders village indoors instead of cancelling.

How much outdoor space do you actually need?

Site area and audience capacity are not the same number. Once you subtract back of house, contractor compounds, circulation routes, emergency access lanes, welfare and parking, the area your audience actually occupies is usually well under half the total site.

A useful sequence when sizing a site:

1. Start from peak concurrent attendance, not total attendance across the day.
2. Add the audience area, then the front of house and stage barrier zones.
3. Add traders, bars, welfare and first aid, each with its own service access.
4. Add parking, which for a rural event is frequently the largest single land use.
5. Add build and break space, and remember you are paying for those days too.

Agree final crowd densities and exit capacities with the Safety Advisory Group rather than fixing them yourself. That is what the group exists for.

Do I need a licence for an outdoor event in Kent?

Almost certainly, if you are selling alcohol, providing regulated entertainment or serving hot food late at night.

There are two routes under the Licensing Act 2003:

A Temporary Event Notice (TEN). This is the light-touch route for small events. No more than 499 people may be on the premises at any one time while licensable activities are taking place, and that figure includes staff, stewards and performers, not just the audience. A single event period cannot exceed 168 hours. Any one premises can be covered by a maximum of 15 TENs in a calendar year, up to a combined total of 21 days. Standard notices must reach the licensing authority no later than ten working days before the event period begins.

A premises licence. Above 499 people, or for a site used repeatedly for licensable activity, you need a premises licence. Established event sites often hold one already, which is one of the quiet advantages of hiring a venue rather than a bare field. Always ask the site owner directly what their licence permits, what hours it covers and what conditions are attached.

Licensing is a separate process from event safety. Both matter.

Who do I need to tell before running an outdoor event in Kent?

Your local Safety Advisory Group, which brings together the council, police, fire and rescue, ambulance and highways to review your plans.

Maidstone Borough Council, the authority covering Detling, asks for a minimum of 12 weeks’ notice so the group has time to review documents and respond. Its definition of a large scale or special event is broad and catches far more organisers than people expect. Notification is triggered if any one of the following applies:

• 1,000 or more people are expected to attend
• road closures or traffic management are needed
• alcohol is available or easily accessible
• amplified music is played
• leisure waters are used
• there is an enhanced risk of crime and disorder
• the event runs at night or overnight
• the event lasts more than 12 hours

Note that word “or”. An 800-person daytime event with a bar and a PA still qualifies.

For documentation, the industry reference is The Purple Guide to Health, Safety and Welfare at Music and Other Events, published by the Events Industry Forum. Local authority officers use it when assessing applications and when sitting on Safety Advisory Groups, so writing your event management plan against it saves a round of questions.

Practical timeline: 12 weeks is the SAG minimum, not a comfortable target. For a first-time event of any scale, start the site conversation 9 to 12 months out and have your SAG paperwork moving 4 to 6 months out.

What drives the cost of outdoor event space hire in Kent?

There is no single day rate, because outdoor hire is priced on land area, duration and services rather than on a room. The variables that move the number most are:

• Land area and which parts of the site you take, including whether you need hard standing
• Build and break days, which are chargeable and are routinely underestimated
• Season and day of week. Summer Saturdays are the scarcest commodity in the county
• Power and water draw, and whether you use existing supplies or import generators
• Welfare provision, and whether permanent facilities cover your peak numbers
• Parking and traffic management, including stewarding and signage
• Ground protection and reinstatement, particularly for heavy vehicle movements in winter

For indoor comparison figures, our guide to how much conference venue hire costs in Kent sets out day rates and delegate rates in detail. For a site-specific outdoor quote, send us your dates, attendance and services list and we will price it properly rather than guess.

What makes the Kent Showground work as an outdoor event site?

We are biased, so here are the specifics rather than the adjectives.

• Over 200 acres of outdoor space, including a private woodland, set within the Kent Downs National Landscape (the designation formerly known as the Kent Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, renamed in November 2023)
• Electricity and water throughout the site, so most events do not start from zero
• Toilet and shower facilities that cater for up to 30,000 visitors
• A permanent perimeter fence and up to six public entrances, with disabled parking at the main two
• Parking for up to 30,000 vehicles, with hard standing around the exhibition halls and overflow within walking distance
• Enclosed rings and a 30 x 40m sand school, used for showjumping, dog agility, drone flying and five-a-side football
• A track record with large outdoor audiences, including music concerts for up to 20,000 people, outdoor cinema and major county shows
• Indoor halls next to the field, including the 3,000m2 Brachers Building, which gives you a genuine wet weather plan
• Minutes from the M2 and M20, which matters for both audience travel and artic access on build day

That last point does more work than it looks. An outdoor event that can move its traders, bars or seated audience under cover at 24 hours’ notice is an event that does not have to refund tickets.

Explore the outdoor event spaces available to hire, or read about the 800,000m2 of space we use for outdoor team building and corporate activity days.

How far ahead should you book outdoor event space in Kent?

For a summer weekend with a large audience, 12 months is normal and 18 months is not unusual for recurring events that want to hold their slot. Midweek dates and shoulder season events, from October to April, are far easier to secure at shorter notice, and are often better value.

If your event needs a Safety Advisory Group review, work backwards from the 12 week minimum and add contingency. Booking the site is the step that unlocks everything else, because most of your paperwork requires a confirmed venue, a site plan and a date.

Ready to look at a site?

Tell us your event type, your expected peak attendance, your preferred dates and what services you need. Our events team will tell you honestly whether the site fits, and if it does not, we will say so.

Enquire about outdoor event space at the Kent Event Centre or call 01622 630975. If you would rather see it first, plan your visit to the Kent Showground at Detling.

Related reading: 7 Things to Consider Before Booking a Large Event Venue in Kent, Exhibition Venues in Kent and Team Building Venues in Kent.

Frequently asked questions

What is outdoor event space hire? Outdoor event space hire is the temporary rental of open-air land for an event, usually priced on the area taken, the number of days including build and break, and the services provided such as power, water, welfare, parking and security.

Do I need a licence to hold an outdoor event in Kent? You need a licence if your event involves selling alcohol, regulated entertainment or late night refreshment. Events with fewer than 500 people on site at any one time can often use a Temporary Event Notice, submitted at least ten working days in advance. Larger or repeating events need a premises licence, which many established venues already hold.

How many people can a Temporary Event Notice cover? No more than 499 people at any one time, including staff, stewards and performers. A single event period cannot exceed 168 hours, and any one premises is limited to 15 notices and 21 days per calendar year.

When do I need to contact the Safety Advisory Group? Contact your local Safety Advisory Group as early as possible. Maidstone Borough Council asks for a minimum of 12 weeks’ notice for large scale or special events, which includes anything with 1,000 or more attendees, road closures, alcohol, amplified music, night-time operation or a duration over 12 hours.

How much outdoor space do I need for a festival? Less than you think for the audience and more than you think for everything else. Parking, back of house, circulation and emergency access routes typically consume more than half the site, so size the land from peak concurrent attendance plus parking rather than from ticket sales alone.

Can outdoor events at the Kent Event Centre run all year? Yes. We take outdoor bookings all year round, from dog agility, flyball and equine events to sponsored walks, organised runs, markets, training days, concerts and large public shows. Winter and midweek dates are usually the easiest to secure.

What happens if it rains? Ask every site this question. At Detling there is hard standing around the exhibition halls, and the three main halls next to the outdoor site run to more than 6,000m2 between them, so elements of an event can move under cover rather than being cancelled.