The thing with the tents
Without the help of “World of Tents (WOT)”, the European market leader for quality tents, Diospi Suyana’s three festivals could not have taken place.
In autumn 2024, Christoph Schäfer, one of the directors of the WOT Group, contacted me: “Dr. John, do you need more tents?” Hm, I wasn’t quite sure, because we already had around 340 tents stacked up in our warehouses. But as you never know what the future holds, I answered his question as follows:
“We could perhaps use 20 tents in reserve. You donate 15 and Diospi Suyana buys 5!”
On December 4th we received a completely different offer from Mr. Schäfer: “Mr. John, we will gladly deliver 160 tents to you, of which you will receive 135 as a donation and Diospi Suyana will pay for 25!”
What was that all about? There really is a huge difference between 20 and 160. But suddenly I sensed that our third festival “Vida en los Andes” could far exceed our expectations. Perhaps this offer from Mr. Schäfer actually came from God himself. So we said yes.
To make a long story short. Of the new tents, units for around 450 young people were set up. The total capacity of our tent city is now 4,000 visitors. The contribution of “World of Tents” is over 600,000 euros in brand new tents.
Mr. Schäfer wrote to me in June 2024 in confidence: “The total donation amount (for Diospi Suyana) over the last few years is indeed by far the largest donation that WOT has (ever) made!” – God is good! /KDJ
(Picture above: In the aerial photo taken a few days before the start of the festival, not all the tents had been erected as welding was still being carried out on the gates and fences).
