Sparsholt College event hire

Sparsholt College is the land-based college on a big countryside campus in the village of Sparsholt, a few miles west of Winchester, and University Centre Sparsholt, its higher education arm, shares the same site. It's the booking we're back at most through the student year: since autumn 2025 the calendar has run freshers fairs, freshers balls, Halloween nights, the Christmas ball, the Valentine's ball, the summer ball and the applicants' welcome days, and both sides of the campus - the college and the university centre - bring us in for them.

The college work sits on the college event hire and freshers event hire pages, the Winchester area page covers the city's other bookings, Andover College is the sister college in the same group, and the venues page lists the rest of the named venues we work at.

Freshers fairs

September is the fixed point. Two years running we've covered the freshers fair stalls with a 28ft by 58ft party marquee, which is big enough to take every stand in one span, and both times the fair has been a mixed indoor and outdoor job: the marquee goes up on the flat grass by the fair, because its anchor pins need somewhere firm to go, and the indoor games sit in the rooms nearby. The 2025 fair ran the green screen photo booth and the gold cup horse racing challenge alongside it, and the 2026 one took the booth again, the bungee run and a speed-reaction game, with the booth back out a fortnight later for the university freshers branded in Sparsholt's own colours and university branding. It's a mixed setup, so knowing where on campus the fair sits is worth settling at enquiry stage.

Freshers balls and Halloween

The evening side runs indoors. The 2026 Wild West freshers ball at University Centre Sparsholt filled a hall with the drapes up and the floor cleared: the rodeo bull in its inflatable surround, carnival stalls, the cactus lasso and milking cows down the sides and the green screen booth taking photos all night. The year before, the freshers ball ran the magic selfie mirror, the rodeo and the lights out challenge. Halloween has been an annual fixture too: the 2025 event had the green screen booth, pixel play and crack the code on the Vault, and the 2026 Halloween ball brought the booth back out with the mega wire, the Revolution reaction game and a racing bike simulator.

Christmas, Valentine's and summer balls

The ball calendar runs right through the year. The December 2025 Christmas ball took a selection of electronic games, the magic mirror and the racing simulator; the February Valentine's ball had the photo booth and the 80s retro arcade games; and the May summer ball ran the electronic games again with the magic mirror, the inflatable axe throwing and the high striker, all indoors in one of the event rooms with the walls dressed for the night. Three balls in an academic year with the same pickup each time is the shape of it.

Applicants' welcome days

The July applicants' welcome days ran across two days with the photo booth and kick and stick foot darts out for the prospective students and their families. Multi-day bookings get the same kit, the same crew and the same paperwork as a single evening, and with school-age visitors walking the campus, every member of staff we send is enhanced-DBS registered.

Working at the campus

The run from our unit in Havant is twenty-odd miles, up the A3(M) and M3 and off at junction 11 onto the A3090, which is the approach the college's own directions give for anyone coming from the south. Winchester is the nearest rail station, and the college's travel page points at the hourly Stagecoach 7 between the station and the centre of campus. The site itself is 450 acres of open countryside, which shapes the planning: the marquee wants a flat grassed area for its anchor pins, the indoor kit wants to know which hall or room it's in and whether there's ceiling height for the rodeo bed, and a mixed fair day wants both answers at the quote stage.

The paperwork side is the same as any college booking. Bookings come through the events and enrichment teams, so the insurance certificate, risk assessment and method statement go out with the quote: we carry £10 million public liability insurance with licensed-premises cover, every inflatable is PIPA-tagged and inspected annually by our in-house RPII inspector, the electrical kit is PAT tested, and the crew who set up and run the kit are ours, RPII-examined, first-aid trained and enhanced-DBS registered.

To book Sparsholt or University Centre Sparsholt, ring us on 01428 751925 or fill in the enquiry form and tell us the date, which side of the campus is booking, whether it's in a hall or out on the grass and the rough numbers.