I purchased this tent for a family beach trip even after reading reviews of people saying they could not fold it.  I admit, it takes a little practice...but this tent does fold back down and fits in the bag.  Once you get the hang of it, it takes about 30 seconds to fold.

I can''t speak to the effectiveness of shade from this tent since we were not able to use it.  When we were at the beach we were dealing with 20-30 mph winds, making the use of a tent impossible unless you wanted to take flight.  I can say it seems to be built very sturdy and is very light and portable.  I can''t wait till my next beach trip (hopefully with less wind) so we can try it out.