Clear-span, pagoda, majlis, arcum, polygon, curve and gazebo — erected for a season and struck without a trace, or bought, anchored and put on a schedule like any other structure on your site.
Priced after we know the span, the ground and how long it stands. Send a rough size, a photograph of the space and your dates and we can usually price it on the call.
It is the first question because it changes the rest of them — the membrane grade, how the tent is held down, the paperwork, and who owns it in March.
We bring it, put it up, and take it away again. Ballasted so nothing is drilled, and the ground is handed back as we found it. Most event, wedding and activation work goes this way.
The tent becomes your asset. Specified in a heavier membrane, anchored or bolted properly, handed over with the drawings and the fire certificate, and put on an inspection schedule so it can be certified again next year.
Not sure which is the better buy? If you will want the same tent again next season, owning and storing it often costs less than hiring twice. Tell us the dates and we will do that arithmetic with you rather than for ourselves.
The workhorse. A gabled aluminium frame in 5 m bays with nothing standing in the middle of the floor, walled or open, from a garden marquee up to a hall you could park a truck in.
Length is set by how many 5 m bays you add, so a clear-span tent is sized by the span first and the length second.
A traditional majlis built properly: a galvanised steel frame under a machine-stitched sha'ar outer, lined in Sadu cloth, and finished inside with the lighting, flooring and seating that decide how it actually feels.
The frame is the cheap half. Almost everything a guest notices is the lining, the light and the floor.
The shape everyone recognises. The peak is carried on cross-cables to the corners, so nothing stands on the floor, and bays link into a run as long as you need.
Pagodas link. One is a bay; six in a row is a concourse. Tell us the run, not the unit.
Four standard sizes, open on all sides or curtained. The small end of the range and the quickest thing we put up.
The only tent in the range that a private customer usually buys outright rather than hires.
A clear-span frame with a curved roof beam instead of a ridge. Same clear floor, more height through the middle, and a shape that reads as architecture rather than as a marquee.
Chosen over a gable when the inside is going to be photographed.
A multi-sided structure that reads as a pavilion rather than a tent. Glazed all the way round it becomes a room; it can also be linked onto a clear-span run as an entrance.
Usually specified as the entrance to something larger, or as a standalone pavilion.
The eaves curve into the roof instead of meeting it at a corner. Modular in 5 m bays like the clear-span, and specified when the structure has to look considered from the outside.
The curved eave costs more to make and buys nothing structurally. It is an appearance decision, and a legitimate one.
Nothing matches both filters. Clear one, or tell us about the job — the structure is chosen for the site and the date, not from a menu.
Capacity is a guide at roughly 1 m² per person standing and 1.5 m² seated. It is not an occupancy figure — that is set by the authority from the exits, and it is one of the things we settle before anything is ordered.
A Ramadan majlis is a room, not a cover. It is judged on the lining, the light and how it feels to sit in for three hours, and it is wanted on a fixed date by a fixed hour. That is why the work is scoped months ahead and why the fit-out matters more than the span.
What we settle first
Event work is scheduled backwards from the doors opening. The structure is rarely the hard part — the approvals, the power, the exits and the strike are. Bring us the date and the headcount first; the span follows from them.
What we settle first
A clear-span tent gives covered floor with no internal columns, goes up in days rather than months, and can be taken down and re-erected somewhere else. For a warehouse overflow, a site facility or a covered yard it is often the honest answer, and it is the one use where the structure stays up long enough to need looking after.
What we settle first
Winter dining, a seasonal majlis, a marketing activation, a temporary classroom or clinic. The defining constraint is that the ground has to be handed back as it was found, which usually means nothing is drilled and the whole structure sits on ballast.
What we settle firstThese are the standard modular sizes we build to. Length is added in 5 m bays, so pick the span from the table and tell us how long you need it.
| Span width | Eave height | Ridge height | Bay |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10 m | 3 m | 5.02 m | 5 m |
| 15 m | 3 m | 6.11 m | 5 m |
| 20 m | 3 m | 7.15 m | 5 m |
| 25 m | 4 m | 9.22 m | 5 m |
| 30 m | 4 m | 10.2 m | 5 m |
| 40 m | 4 m | 12.3 m | 5 m |
| Span width | Eave height | Ridge height | Bay |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10 m | 4 m | 5.6 m | 5 m |
| 15 m | 4 m | 6.4 m | 5 m |
| 20 m | 4 m | 7.1 m | 5 m |
| 30 m | 4 m / 5 m | 8.8 m / 10.8 m | 5 m |
Read the eave height, not the ridge. The eave is the height you actually have at the wall, and it is what decides whether a vehicle gets in, where a truss can hang and how the space feels along the edges — which is where most people end up standing.
Every roof we supply is PVC-coated polyester. The grade is the decision, and it is mostly a decision about how long the tent has to stand.
| Grade | Base cloth | Tensile, warp / weft | Typical service life | Where it belongs |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 650 g/m² | 1000D, 20 × 20 | 2200–2600 / 2100–2500 N/5cm | 7 to 10 years | Linings, short-duration and hire stock |
| 850 g/m² | 1000D, 23 × 23 | 2700–3000 / 2500–2800 N/5cm | 10 to 15 years | Our standard roof on every tent on this page |
| 900 g/m² | 1000D, 30 × 30 | 3500–4000 / 3200–3600 N/5cm | 15 to 20 years | Long-standing and industrial spans |
Typical for the gradeBase cloth and strength figures are the published industry values for each grade of PVC-coated polyester, not test results from a particular roll. The certificate that matters on your project is the one issued for the material actually supplied, and it comes with the handover file.
An untreated PVC surface holds up for three to five years outdoors before it starts to grey and hold dirt. An acrylic lacquer takes it further. A PVDF topcoat is the one specified where UV is relentless, and it keeps its appearance and sheds dirt for fifteen to twenty years. In this climate that difference is the whole argument.
A translucent white roof gives usable daylight underneath and needs less lighting during the day. A blockout roof — typically a 650 g/m² translucent white with a blockout layer — is specified where projection, staging or storage means you want the light controlled instead.
"Flame retardant" on its own means nothing. What an authority accepts is a test certificate against a named standard, from an approved laboratory, for the material supplied — and a permanently fixed label identifying the size and material of the structure.
PVC-coated polyester is rated across a wide temperature band by its manufacturers. The end of it that matters here is the top: sustained heat, and the UV that comes with it, is what ages a roof in the Gulf.
A tent does not blow away because it is too light. Wind passing over the roof lifts it, and the anchoring has to hold that uplift down. Which method we use is settled on site, because it depends entirely on what the tent is standing on.
Weights sit on or beside each baseplate and hold the frame down without anything being fixed into the ground. This is the default for short duration, for hire work, for hard standing and for anywhere the surface has to be handed back untouched.
SuitsGrass · paving · asphalt · roof decks · anything that must not be drilled
Rods driven into soil or compacted sand, taking the uplift into the ground itself. Cheaper and faster than ballast where the ground allows it, and the ground is made good on removal.
SuitsSoil · sand · compacted ground with nothing buried beneath
The baseplate is fixed into an existing concrete slab. The right answer when the structure stands for a year or more, and the only one that leaves no ballast footprint around the perimeter.
SuitsExisting concrete slab · long-duration and permanent installations
Very common in practice. A tent that lands half on a car park and half on landscaping is anchored two different ways, and the survey is what tells us where the line falls.
SuitsMixed ground · phased sites · anywhere the slab stops short
Before we quote an anchoring method we ask what is under the surface. Services, tanks, a podium slab or a waterproofing membrane all change the answer, and none of them are visible from a photograph.
Almost every tent sold in this market is advertised with a wind figure and no standard attached. We would rather explain what the number would have to say to mean anything.
A wind figure means something once it names the averaging period, the exposure category and the anchoring condition it assumes. The same tent honestly carries very different numbers under different assumptions — which is why two suppliers can quote the same structure at 80 and at 120.
Wind over a roof creates suction. The frame is rarely what fails; the anchoring is. This is why we spend the survey on the ground rather than on the tent.
An identical tent in a walled garden and on open desert are not the same structural problem. Nothing published in a catalogue can settle that.
Every temporary structure has one, ours included. A management plan that says who watches the forecast and who calls it is part of a serious installation, and we will write one with you.
[ design wind speed and standard — to be published once confirmed ]
The frame and the roof are the easy half. What the space is actually like to be in comes from the four decisions below, and they are usually where a budget is won or lost.
A cooled tent has to be a sealed tent, which means a lining, closed walls and a power supply sized for the units. It is the single change that most often moves a quotation, so it is worth deciding early.
How long the tent stands changes more than the price. It changes the anchoring, the membrane grade, the paperwork and whether you should be buying it at all.
Ballasted, nothing drilled, up and down by our crew. The ground is handed back as it was found. This is where most event work sits.
650 g/m² is sufficient · ballast · full set-up and strike
Ramadan, a winter dining season, a marketing period. Worth doing the arithmetic — if you will want it again next year, buying and storing it often costs less than hiring twice.
850 g/m² · ballast or ground anchors · storage between seasons
Now it is an asset rather than an event. It should be bolted or anchored properly, specified in a heavier membrane, and put on an inspection schedule like any other structure on the site.
850 or 900 g/m² · bolted or anchored · inspection schedule
If nothing is ever coming down, a tent may be the wrong purchase. A tensile structure or a fixed canopy will usually cost less over its life and look better doing it. We will say so rather than sell you a tent.
Talk to us about a tensile structure insteadA tent over a certain size, used by the public, is a temporary structure in the eyes of the authorities — and the paperwork is usually what delays an opening, not the build. Here is what is generally asked for, so nothing on your side is a surprise.
Test certificates showing the membrane, and every lining, drape and scenic fabric inside it, are flame-retardant to a recognised standard from an approved laboratory. NFPA 701 is the standard UAE authorities name most often. The structure also carries a permanently fixed label identifying its size and material.
Scaled plans showing exits, aisle widths, travel distances and assembly points; a roof or rigging plan if anything is hung from the frame; and structural calculations covering the tie-downs or ballast and the wind actions assumed.
In Abu Dhabi the framework asks for plans to reach the authority at least ten working days before erection, an inspection after it is up and at least two days before the event, and removal within three days of the permit expiring. Dubai runs its own route through the tent permit and a Civil Defence review. Other emirates vary.
Extinguishers at the exits, generator enclosures, emergency lighting, and a headcount that does not exceed what the exits were sized for.
This is a summary of what is generally required, not legal advice, and requirements differ by emirate, by venue and by the nature of the event. We will tell you which apply to your job and what we handle.
The European standard for tents — EN 13782, which applies from about 50 m² of ground area — asks for more than a structure. It asks for a record: the design documents, the drawings, and a log of every examination the tent has had, kept with the tent for its life. It is called the tent book.
That is our asset record, written into a standard, twenty years before we built one. A tent that moves between sites and crews is exactly the kind of asset that loses its history — and a tent with no history is one nobody can certify. Every structure we supply goes onto the same register as everything else we install.
How we keep asset recordsA hired tent is our problem for the fortnight. A bought tent is your asset for years, and it should come with the same terms as anything else we install.
The frame outlasts the roof by a wide margin, which is the point. A membrane is a consumable with a known life; a properly specified aluminium frame is not. Re-skinning a good frame is a fraction of replacing a tent.
No price on this page, because the span, the ground and the duration decide it. Answer what you can — with a rough size, your dates and a photograph of the space we can usually price it on the call.
Photographs from our own archive and from recent installations. Where a structure in the range has no photograph of ours yet, we have left the space rather than borrowed one.
Ask us these too. Two tents that photograph identically can be a very different purchase.
Question two settles it fastest. A supplier who cannot produce the fire certificate for the fabric they are about to put over your guests has not been asked for it before. See the full buying guidance.
Ramadan majlis · Hire or buy · What holds it down · Permits and fire certificates · What span for how many people · Cooling a tent
Frames move between sites and crews change. Without a record, nobody can say what the structure is, what it was tested to, or when it was last examined. Every tent we supply goes onto the same asset register as everything else we install.
See lifecycle servicesEverything else follows from it — the structure, the anchoring, the approvals and whether hiring or buying is the better purchase. Send the dates, a rough size and a photograph of the space.