It’s been a busy summer.
From Silverstone and Covent Garden to festival fields and city centres across the UK, our structures have been behind some very different brand experiences over the past few months.
So, as the summer season starts to wind down, we gave Justin Isles, Founder of The Events Structure, and Michael Touhey, Project Manager, a challenge:
Pick three projects from the summer that really stood out to you. And tell us why.
No categories. No scoring. And they didn’t have to choose the biggest or most elaborate builds.
Their answers were interesting.
Justin was drawn to projects where the structure had been used particularly creatively – sometimes through a complete transformation, sometimes by keeping things surprisingly simple.
Mike's choices reflected a different side of event delivery: long-standing working relationships, structures that could adapt from one event to the next, and the work involved in taking a campaign on the road.
Between them, they chose six very different projects.
Here’s what they chose.
Justin's picks
Doritos at the British Grand Prix: impact without overcomplication
First on Justin's list is the Doritos activation at the British Grand Prix, delivered alongside Osmo Projects.
At an event like the British Grand Prix, there's no shortage of brands competing for attention. But what struck Justin about this activation was how effectively it created impact without overcomplicating the environment.
Bold Doritos and Formula 1 branding, a strong black and red palette and carefully considered use of the structure gave the activation plenty of presence.
As Justin puts it:
“What I liked about this one was that it didn't need masses of additional branding to make an impact. The creative was strong, the structure worked with it, and the finished activation really stood out.”
It's a useful reminder that creating impact doesn't necessarily mean adding more.
Sometimes it's about understanding where the branding will work hardest and giving a strong creative idea the space to do its job.
And, of course, what visitors see on event day is only half the story.
Before the first fans arrived, there was transport, installation, positioning and preparation to coordinate – the behind-the-scenes work that allows the finished experience to feel effortless.
OutCider: doing more with 10ft
Justin's second choice couldn't be much more different.
For the OutCider activation at Granite City Festival, delivered alongside Bigger, the starting point was our Boutique 10ft container bar – the smallest container structure in our range.
Its size is also one of its strengths.
Boutique can be transported using one of our own vans, helping to keep logistics straightforward and giving agencies an option for locations where a larger structure simply isn't practical.
For OutCider, bold external graphics transformed that compact footprint into a highly visible festival bar. Once open and serving, it became a natural point for interaction with festival-goers.
“This is our smallest container, but it shows how much you can actually do with a 10ft space. The branding looked great and, once it was open and serving, it became a really effective little activation.” — Justin
It's a simple project with a useful lesson behind it.
Bigger isn't automatically better.
The important question is what the activation needs to achieve – and the smartest way of creating the space to do it.
Sunglass Hut: when the original structure almost disappears
For his third choice, Justin picked a project where the transformation went considerably further.
Backlash challenged us to turn our Gallery Plus container into a premium Sunglass Hut brand experience in Covent Garden.
The finished activation incorporated custom cladding and fabrication, branded finishes, a catwalk, DJ booth and GlamBOT experience.
By the time everything came together, the original structure was almost unrecognisable.
“I love projects where you have to look twice to work out what the original structure was. This started with our Gallery Plus container, but by the time everything had been added, it had become a completely bespoke Sunglass Hut space.” — Justin
That's one of the things we enjoy most about working with creative agencies.
The structure doesn't have to dictate the idea.
It can simply provide the practical starting point – something proven that can be transported, installed and operated reliably – and then give the creative team the flexibility to take it somewhere completely different.
For Sunglass Hut, that was particularly important because the activation wasn't there for a single event day. It ran for an extended period in one of London's busiest public spaces, so the environment needed to continue looking and performing like a premium brand space throughout the campaign.
Read the full Sunglass Hut project story
Mike's picks
When we asked Mike for his three projects, a different theme started to emerge.
All three involved people we've worked with previously.
For a Project Manager, that matters.
A successful activation isn't only about how the finished build looks. It's also about understanding how a client or agency works, solving problems together and taking what you've learned from one project into the next.
Estrella Damm: adapting the idea, not just repeating it
Mike's first choice was Estrella Damm, working again with Orange Beach Bars.
This summer, the Estrella activation travelled across three festivals, with the setup changing to suit each location.
At RALLY Festival, for example, the Impact Plus combined a fully branded bar at ground level with an upper deck, providing additional activation space and greater visibility across the festival site.
At other stops, the structure and finishes were adapted again to respond to the site and character of the event.
“We worked with the team on Estrella last year, so it was great to build on that again. What I like about this campaign is that we're not just putting exactly the same setup into every festival – we can adapt it to suit each site.” — Mike
That's an important distinction for touring campaigns.
Consistency doesn't have to mean recreating exactly the same physical environment everywhere.
Access changes. Footprints change. Audiences change. Operational requirements change.
The challenge is maintaining a recognisable, premium brand presence while allowing the activation itself to respond to each location.
We worked with Orange Beach Bars and Estrella on their festival programme in 2025 too, making this year's campaign an opportunity to build on an established relationship while continuing to evolve the environment.
BBC: one structure, a whole summer of live broadcasting
Mike's second selection is a relationship that goes back considerably further.
We've supported the BBC across its festival season for a number of years, and this summer our specialist broadcast environment has once again been on the road.
It started at BBC Radio 1 Big Weekend in Sunderland, before continuing to Download, TRNSMT and Reading, and then taking on a completely new identity for BBC Radio 2 in the Park.
“The BBC structure has had a proper summer. It's gone from Radio 1's Big Weekend to Download, TRNSMT and Reading, then been completely rebranded for Radio 2 in the Park. It's a great example of how one structure can keep working across a whole season.” — Mike
It's also a good example of something audiences rarely get to see.
From the outside, the environment needs to look completely at home within each festival and its particular identity.
Inside, it has a serious job to do.
The multi-container environment provides functioning broadcast and presentation spaces designed to operate reliably in busy live festival conditions.
Then, when one event finishes, the process starts again.
The structure moves on, is prepared for its next deployment and can take on a completely different visual identity.
That was particularly apparent later in the summer when it was transformed into BBC Radio 2's orange and red branding.
For production teams and agencies planning multi-event campaigns, there's a significant advantage to getting the underlying environment right and then adapting it throughout the season.
Nissan: a premium experience designed to move
Mike's final choice takes us away from the festival field and onto the road.
Working with Fusion, we supported Nissan with a touring UK activation that began in Manchester before continuing to other locations around the country.
The finished environment had a very different character from Mike's other two choices.
Built around Nissan's “Designed. Built. Loved. by Britain” campaign, it created a polished, premium environment for the brand and vehicles within busy public spaces.
But with any roadshow, there's an interesting contradiction.
The finished activation needs to look completely at home wherever it appears – while almost everything behind it has been designed to move.
“Roadshows are always interesting because every location brings something different. The end result needs to look completely at home wherever it goes, even though behind the scenes you're constantly thinking about transport, access, setup and the next move.” — Mike
Different locations bring different access requirements, timings and installation considerations.
The audience shouldn't have to think about any of them.
They should simply experience the finished activation as intended.
And that's where the operational planning behind a touring campaign becomes every bit as important as the environment itself.
Read 7 Reasons Brands Are Investing in Roadshow Events in 2026
Different projects. Same challenge.
Looking across Justin and Mike's choices, there isn't a formula connecting the six – and that's partly the point.
One used a compact 10ft container.
Another required multiple containers to create a specialist live broadcast environment.
One was transformed so completely that its original structure almost disappeared. Another was designed specifically to move from city to city.
Some were about making a big visual impact. Others were about flexibility, repeat deployment or simply finding a practical solution that worked particularly well.
But there is one thing they all have in common.
The creative idea still has to work in the real world.
It needs to arrive at the right place at the right time. It needs to work within the site. It needs to perform for the people actually using it. And it needs to look the way everyone imagined when the idea was still sitting on a screen or sketchpad.
That's the part of experiential delivery we particularly enjoy.
Agencies bring us ideas in all sorts of stages – from detailed production briefs to early concepts that still need some practical problem-solving.
Our job isn't to tell the creative team what the campaign should be.
It's to help work out how we can make it happen.
What are you working on next?
As the summer season winds down, attention is already turning towards autumn and winter campaigns – as well as projects taking shape for 2027.
If you've got an activation, roadshow, festival environment or something that doesn't quite fit neatly into a category, we're always happy to get involved early.