Summer has a habit of filling the diary rather quickly. One weekend it’s a children’s birthday in the garden, the next it’s a school fete, then there’s a wedding, a company family day, a community festival and a BBQ that somehow went from “a few people round” to half the neighbourhood.
Whatever you’ve got planned, Tom’s Lights Events has a huge range of entertainment available for summer events in Birmingham, Solihull, Dudley, Castle Bromwich, Sutton Coldfield, Walsall and throughout the West Midlands.
And we really do mean a huge range. You can keep things simple with a bouncy castle or build an entire event filled with inflatables, sports activities, traditional games, arcade machines, food treats and attractions for different age groups.
Garden Birthdays: The Summer Classic
There’s a reason bouncy castles and sunny birthday parties go together so well. Give us a suitable garden, a group of excited children and an inflatable and you’ve already got the main entertainment sorted.
The Dinosaur Bouncy Castle, Unicorn Bouncy Castle and Party Time Bouncy Castle give you several themes to choose from, while our bouncy castle and slide combos add another activity without requiring two separate inflatables.
For bigger gardens and venues, you could go further with one of our inflatable slides.
School Fetes Before the Final Bell
The last few weeks of the summer term can be packed with events. PTA summer fetes, school fairs, reward days, Year 6 celebrations, sports days, leavers’ events and end-of-term parties all need activities capable of entertaining plenty of pupils.
This is where our larger equipment earns its keep. The 65ft Partytime Assault Course 10ft Platform Slide can form a major part of a school fun day, while our wider assault courses give schools several sizes and configurations to consider.
Add sports games, fairground activities and smaller games around the site and you can create several activity stations rather than having the whole school waiting for one attraction.
Sports Days That Go Beyond the Egg and Spoon
There’s nothing wrong with the classics, but sometimes sports day deserves a bonus round.
The Interactive Penalty Shootout, Inflatable Basketball Shootout and Giant Inflatable Dartboard (over 5m high!) introduce different skills and give pupils activities they might not encounter during the traditional races.
You can use different games as stations, arrange class-versus-class activities or simply open them up as entertainment once the serious sporting business is finished.
Summer Fetes Need More Than One Thing to Do
A good fete is made for wandering. Have a go here, buy something there, stop for food, bump into somebody you haven’t seen for six months and somehow end up having another go at the game you were terrible at earlier.
Our funfair games fit that format beautifully.
Hook A Duck, Tin Can Alley, Splat The Rat, Ball In The Bucket and Roll A Ball can be positioned as individual attractions around your site. They’re particularly useful for school, church, charity and community fundraisers where organisers want multiple activities operating simultaneously.
Village Fairs and Community Festivals
When the whole community is invited, the entertainment needs to cover a much wider range of visitors.
That could mean a large inflatable for children, garden games for families, sports activities for teenagers and something completely different for the adults.
The 9 Hole Crazy Golf is a great example of an attraction that doesn’t need to belong to one particular age group. Likewise, Giant Connect Four, Giant Jenga and Cornhole give people something to play while chatting and enjoying the rest of the event.
Summer Weddings Can Have a Playful Side
Who decided weddings had to be serious all day?
Our Wedding Bouncy Castle gives couples an unusual addition to a summer reception and can be enjoyed between the more traditional parts of the day.
Games can work brilliantly during those quieter periods too. Crazy golf and garden games give guests something to do between the ceremony, photographs, meal and evening reception without imposing a rigid entertainment schedule.
As daylight starts to fade, our LED Furniture Hire can help move the event into its evening phase with illuminated bars, seating and tables.
Company Summer Parties Without the Awkward Small Talk
Give colleagues an activity and suddenly there’s something to talk about other than work.
Our Corporate Hire range can be used for staff BBQs, company anniversaries, employee appreciation events, team socials and large corporate family days.
The Bungee Run (35ft) is one way of settling those important interdepartmental disputes. The Gladiator Duel is another.
For something less physical, interactive sports, arcade machines and garden games allow colleagues to compete without needing to spend the afternoon throwing themselves around an inflatable.
Family Fun Days Need Fun for the Whole Family
The clue is in the name. If your summer event is being advertised as a family fun day, it helps if toddlers, children, teenagers and adults can all find something intended for them.
We can create toddler areas using soft play and ball pools, with equipment such as the 19 pc Multi Coloured Soft Play set, Large Party Time Ball Pit and Didi Cars (x5).
Older children can head towards the inflatables and sports games, while parents and grandparents can get involved with garden games and traditional fairground activities.
Holiday Clubs Have Six Weeks to Fill
The summer holidays can feel very long when you’re responsible for keeping groups of children entertained.
Holiday clubs, childcare providers, youth groups and community organisations can use our hire range to introduce special activity days throughout the break. One week might feature an inflatable obstacle course; another could revolve around sports games, traditional fairground activities or a mixture of attractions.
Changing the format gives children something different to look forward to rather than repeating the same activities throughout July and August.
Football Club Presentation Days and Summer Tournaments
Football clubs are another natural fit for summer event hire. Presentation days, junior tournaments, club BBQs and end-of-season celebrations can all benefit from activities that keep players and siblings occupied between matches, presentations and food.
The Penalty Shootout is an obvious place to start, but you don’t have to keep everything football themed. Crazy golf, inflatables and fairground games can give the rest of the family plenty to do as well.
Charity Fundraisers Can Turn Games into Donations
If you’re raising money during the summer, traditional games provide a simple way of adding more fundraising opportunities around your venue.
Create a carnival area with several smaller activities, run competitions, offer prizes or combine the games with larger attractions to encourage visitors to stay at the event for longer.
Schools, sports clubs, community groups and charities can all build different formats around the equipment available.
Summer BBQs Can Get Slightly Out of Hand
It started with a barbecue. Then someone suggested a bouncy castle. Somebody else wanted games. The children invited friends. The neighbours are coming. There’s now a gazebo involved.
At this point, you might as well commit.
A Multi Coloured Adult Bouncy Castle means the grown-ups don’t necessarily have to surrender all the inflatable fun to the children, while garden games and sports activities can turn an ordinary summer gathering into a proper afternoon of entertainment.
Bring the Funfair to Your Summer Event
You don’t need an entire travelling fairground to introduce some traditional summer-fair character.
Alongside our carnival games, you can add the Rodeo Bull for an attraction that’s as entertaining for the people watching as it is for whoever is attempting to stay aboard.
Our rodeo football also puts a sporting spin on the mechanical rodeo format and comes supervised, making it an interesting addition to football events, sports celebrations and summer fun days.
Candy Floss, Popcorn and Something Cold
Summer entertainment is thirsty work.
Our Fun Foods give you some familiar event favourites, including Candy Floss 2hrs, Popcorn Machine 2hrs and Slush Machine 2hrs.
The slush machine is an obvious contender when the temperature climbs, while candy floss and popcorn fit naturally into school fetes, community events, family days and carnival-style setups.
Summer Events for Teenagers Aren’t Forgotten Either
Teenagers can be a harder audience to plan for, particularly if the entertainment has been designed primarily around younger children.
This is where our interactive games and arcade games provide another direction. The Interactive Dartboard, Boxing Punchbag Machine, Arcade Cabinet and Prize Crane Arcade Grabber can all add activities with an older audience in mind.
They’re useful for secondary-school celebrations, youth events, corporate family days and indoor summer functions.
Summer Isn't Always Sunny
We're in the West Midlands. We know better than to pretend every July afternoon arrives with blue skies.
If you're choosing an indoor venue, there are still plenty of possibilities. Arcade equipment, soft play, interactive games and suitable inflatables can provide substantial entertainment without relying on a field or garden.
If an inflatable is being considered for a hall, always check the available floor space and ceiling clearance against the dimensions required for the particular product.
From One Castle to a Whole Summer Fun Day
That's perhaps the biggest advantage of booking with Tom’s Lights Events: the range can scale with the event.
A birthday might need one castle. A school fete might need an assault course, funfair games and food treats. A company family day could combine inflatables, interactive sports, toddler entertainment, arcade games and a rodeo attraction.
You don't have to make every summer event enormous. You just need the right entertainment for the people who are coming.
Summer Event Hire Around Birmingham and the West Midlands
We provide summer event equipment throughout Birmingham and the surrounding region, covering private homes, schools, sports clubs, suitable halls, business premises and larger event venues.
Whether you're planning in Birmingham, Solihull, Dudley, Castle Bromwich, Sutton Coldfield, Walsall or elsewhere in our delivery area, you can browse the range online and start working out what your summer event needs.
From the final weeks of school through to the August bank holiday and the last big gatherings before autumn arrives, our summer diary can get busy. If you already know your event date, it's worth getting your entertainment organised rather than leaving your first-choice products until the last minute.
Take a look through All Products, choose your favourites and get your summer event into the diary with Tom’s Lights Events.
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