I've worked on a few outdoor productions.
Three of these productions were inside the main courtyard of the Huron Historic Gaol (Jail). The shows (save for matinées) started at dusk. For the first production there we set up scaffolding with the lights mounted to them.
For the latter two we used some Genie Supertowers with some slightly improvised
truss (did not have budget to rent or buy
truss; But we made it work very safely. Did not even try to come down in gale force winds one night).
The only problem that we had was when the Gaol was struck by lightning, and that lightning went along the stone wall and straight down the one tower and also striking the person lowering the tower. (We had tarps over the lights and booth
riser).
Anyways the courtyard is NOT paved, it is all grass, save for a 3" wide
line of stones that we used to
mark the
edge of our
stage area.
The First production we did in the area was A Midsummer Night's dream, and everyone commented on how nice it was to do it outdoors (well with stone on all sides, certainly helps with
acoustics). And during the Matinees we clearly did not need or use any lighting at all.
The Last production we did was actually written by the director and told the story surrounding the last public hanging in Canada (which was done in that very place). It was very eerie leaving after the show knowing thats where the character actually died.
Anyways I wish you well with this prospective outdoor production, you'll have loads of fun I'm sure.