The base is the cheapest part of a flag to get wrong and the most expensive to get wrong twice, because the second time usually involves somebody’s paintwork.

Soft ground: use a spike

A ground spike pushed into grass or soil is both the cheapest option and the most stable one, which almost never happens in hardware. It resists sideways load far better than any surface weight, and it disappears visually.

The only real constraint is permission and buried services. On a sports field or a market pitch this is the obvious answer; on a site you do not own, ask first.

Hard standing: use weight, and more than you think

A folding cross base with a fillable ring is the everyday answer for tarmac and paving. A water bag does the same job and stores flat, which matters if flags travel in a van and live in a cupboard between events.

The number people get wrong is how much. Ballast requirements climb sharply with height, and a 5m flag on a base sized for a 3.4m one is a flag lying on its side by mid-afternoon. Tell us the height and the exposure and we will size it.

Permanent positions: set it into concrete

A slot mount cast into the ground gives a fixed socket that never needs weighting, never gets moved by a delivery driver, and leaves nothing to trip over when the flag is down.

It is the right answer for a kerbside pitch that will carry a flag for years. The flag itself gets replaced for each new offer; the mount stays.

Forecourts: use the car

A wheel plate slides under a parked tyre so the vehicle becomes the ballast. Nothing is fixed, nothing is dug, and the flag cannot be knocked over without moving the car.

It is the standard on dealership forecourts for exactly that reason, and it is worth having a couple in the van for outdoor markets and any site where fixing down is not allowed.