Activation Type: Concession, Food, & Beverage Tents
Waterloo Sparkling Water shows up where people are ready for something cold, refreshing, and full of flavor. This includes anything from music festivals and athletic events to high-energy outdoor gatherings where a sparkling water sample can hit at exactly the right moment.
For nearly five years, Waterloo has worked with TentCraft on branded event assets that help its team create memorable sampling experiences in the field. While Waterloo uses TentCraft products across different types of indoor and outdoor activations, this story focuses on the brand’s outdoor event setup:
A connected pair of custom inflatable GYBE tents that has become a recognizable part of Waterloo’s field marketing presence.
Waterloo first purchased its custom inflatable GYBE event tents in November 2022, launching the now-staple setup of two GYBE tents connected by a fusion panel. Since then, the brand has expanded its inflatable tent kits across five major U.S. regions: Austin, Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York City, and Chicago.
Related Article: Beverage Sampling Tent Ideas: 11 Drink Booth Setups That Put Your Product in People's Hands
The Challenges
Waterloo’s outdoor activations are built for busy, high-energy environments: music festivals, athletic events, and crowded sampling moments where people are moving quickly and the brand experience has to connect fast.
For Waterloo, the right setup had to support three priorities:
A Look That Matched the Brand and the Moment
The activation needed to feel bright, premium, and energetic — not like a standard pop-up tent dropped into the event.
A Setup Field Teams Could Easily Manage
With activations happening across regions, Waterloo needed a portable structure that could be transported, set up, taken down, and redeployed without unnecessary complexity.
A Layout Built for Grab-And-Go Sampling
The footprint had to create room for staff, cold product, back stock, guest interaction, and event energy — including a DJ at Sea Otter 2026 — while keeping the front of the booth open and inviting attendees to grab a can and keep moving.
As Sasha from Waterloo Sparkling Water put it at Sea Otter: “We like this setup for a lot of reasons. It goes well with the vibe here. The simplicity and the functionality is the go-to reason why this tent makes sense for us.”
The TentCraft & Waterloo Solution
TentCraft helped Waterloo bring that experience to life with a connected pair of custom 10’x10’ inflatable GYBE tents.
Unlike a standard pop-up, the GYBE’s curved inflatable structure creates a more distinctive silhouette on a crowded event site. Waterloo’s custom printed roofs, bold magenta interior panels, branded walls, and connecting fusion panel turned the two tents into one cohesive sampling environment.
“I think the inflatable gives us more of a premium look, and it’s not complicated to set up,” said Sasha from Waterloo Sparkling Water.
The inflatable design gives Waterloo a setup that is lightweight, portable, and easy to manage in the field. Each tent packs into a backpack, making it much easier for teams to move through event sites than hauling a heavy pop-up bag or rolling a bulky frame across crowded grounds. Once on-site, the tents can be inflated quickly without the bulk or complexity of a heavier event structure. For teams activating in multiple regions, that portability matters.
The connected layout also gives Waterloo flexibility once the tent is live. At Sea Otter, the two-tent footprint created enough covered space for a DJ, cases of sparkling water back stock, coolers, and a team of three to five people greeting guests and encouraging them to try new flavors.
Out front, Waterloo kept large ice-filled bins stocked with cans so attendees could quickly grab a free sparkling water as they passed by. That setup kept the experience casual, fast-moving, and fun, more like stepping into a branded party than stopping at a basic sampling table.
The result is a branded event space that supports both sides of Waterloo’s activation goals: the practical needs of the field team and the high-energy experience the brand wants guests to remember.
As Sasha put it: “Make sure you go with the right people, people that know what they’re doing, people that have experience. TentCraft does that for us.”
The Activation and Social Content
Waterloo Sparkling Water Walkthrough video:
