Event draping: choosing curtains, supports and tensioned fabric

Start with what you want to show and what you want to hide

Mark where the audience and cameras will be. Check a stage backdrop from the seating and camera angles; a room divider from both sides; a backstage enclosure with doors and work in progress. Fabric may conceal well under front lighting but reveal silhouettes when lights come on behind it.

Write down its primary purpose and test secondary uses too. If the curtain will be a photo backdrop and hide equipment, check both uses. When you only need to block part of a view, compare the material, transport, and preparation each option requires.

Fabric handles the view, but managing people or closing a perimeter needs a separate review. Coordinate barriers and crowd management (Spanish) with the finish so both work together.

Pipe and drape: choose fabric and support together

Pipe and drape combines uprights, crossbars, bases, and curtains. Give the supplier the height, width of each span, and fabric weight so they can propose compatible components and configuration.

Drape Kings shows how to assemble its system: crossbars, bases and pins, uprights, panels, and fullness adjustment. It relates bases and crossbars to span width, height, and weight. Use those instructions for its components and find the instructions for the system you will install. Pipe and drape installation.

Ask the quote to identify the system and accessories. Draw the footprint of the bases, which will be visible, and how ends and corners finish. Being freestanding does not make components from any source compatible.

Tip: mention from the start if you also want a sign or light fixture alongside the curtain. The supplier must check how to support that accessory; the fabric crossbar is not an available support for any piece of equipment.

Pleated curtain or smooth panel: fabrication changes

Pleats and overlaps are part of a curtain’s appearance. Agree on a pocket or top attachment, fabric quantity, and bottom edge. A smooth tensioned panel needs different measurements and finishing: simply stretching the same panel will not produce both results.

ShowTex Keder PrintFrame uses an aluminum profile that accepts a core sewn into the fabric edge. Confirm the edge and profile for the system you choose. Keder PrintFrame.

If the project specifies SEG, keder, or hook-and-loop, request a drawing of the edge and profile. Check fabrication dimensions and installation method. Two frames with identical outside dimensions may require different finished fabrics.

If the curtain moves during the event, draw how far it opens, where the gathered fabric sits, and who operates it. This helps you choose a track, fixed curtain, or tensioned frame according to what needs to change during the program.

Measurements, fullness and overlaps: clarify them before sewing

Measure the width to cover, finished height, and space for supports. State whether that width means the opening, the already gathered curtain, or all the fabric laid flat: confusing them can leave you short of material.

Drawing example: a visible line of 6 m with fullness of 1.5 times calls for considering 9 m of developed width. Then add overlaps, pockets, and seams with the fabricator. That ratio is a finish chosen for the example; another fabric or appearance may need a different one.

Agree on the bottom finish: floor-length, raised, or another treatment. Check walkways and doors before choosing. Draw every end, side return, and opening to avoid an unexpected gap on show day.

Allow time and a clean space to inspect, prepare, and store the fabric. Check the cleaning and wrinkle treatment the material allows; not every panel can be washed or ironed the same way.

Test opacity, color and intended use

Request a sample and view it under the planned lighting. Test color, wrinkles, sheen, transparency, and shadows from audience and camera positions. If you will project or light from behind, select material for that purpose and define where the sources will go.

Find the fabric’s data sheet and certificates and, where applicable, those for its treatment. Rose Brand explains IFR, FR, and NFR differences and product-specific tests. Check with the venue which evidence it accepts for the material and its condition. Fabric questions.

For sound, separate two questions: do you want to reduce room reverberation or keep the neighboring event from being heard? ShowTex distinguishes absorption from reducing sound transmission between spaces. A curtain chosen by color establishes neither. Acoustic solutions.

Tell the supplier what happens on both sides and what sound levels you expect. A visual divider may help, but a conversation beside a show requires a room review and an identified acoustic solution.

At a hotel or outdoors, check where the system will stand

At a hotel, review floor protection, permitted supports, ceiling, light fixtures, signage, and doors with the venue. A photo with measurements may reveal early that a base or fabric return would sit directly in a walkway.

Outdoors, a large opaque fabric panel catches wind. Request a proposal covering material, system, fixings, and operation for that site. Curtain height alone cannot determine how much ballast to use.

Switching to a more open fabric or another surface may change both appearance and concealment. Review the alternative with the designer and supplier before fabricating or printing.

Tip: test the backdrop with the teams handling decor and styling and lighting. Adjusting fabric and light on a sample is easier than correcting them separately during installation.

Before the show: test the backdrop with lighting and people passing through

Bring a plan showing visible sides, panels, and openings, plus a finish reference. Check support, appearance, and what happens when someone passes through: all three must work together.

1. Finalize appearance and use

   Confirm what it conceals, visible sides, color, pleats or tension, printing, and walkways.

2. Choose fabric and system

   Review material, fabrication, dimensions, weight, documents, bases, and compatible accessories.

3. Review the site

   Check supports, floor, ceiling, signage, exits, and services, including outdoor conditions where applicable.

4. Prepare and install

   Inspect fabric and components. Follow the system instructions and agreed finish.

5. Test the views

   With lights and cameras, check opacity, wrinkles, shadows, reflections, logo, sides, and openings.

6. Agree on changes and removal

   Define who moves curtains or changes panels and how the fabric is protected, dismantled, and returned.

How to conceal backstage light

Draw the positions from which backstage light is visible and the height the curtain must cover. Identify fabric panel, support, bases, and circulation route before requesting installation. Stands with no brand or documented capacity do not provide enough information to define a configuration.

Hide backstage while keeping the route clear

Test where it needs to remain concealed. A panel that blocks the center view may reveal a door from the side or open as an artist passes. Before ordering the full installation, test a sample with the actual lights.

Provide finished width, height, overlap, fullness, and access method to choose fabric and support together. If old stands are unidentified, ask whether they can be identified and used in that application. When there is insufficient information to check this, choose a known system with its components.

Mark bases, panels, doors, and cables on the floor. Have artists walk through with costumes and equipment, and check signage. Test show and work lighting: blocking glare onstage must preserve good visibility along the route. Mention any exterior door that could cause drafts.

Drape Kings covers crossbar and base selection in steps 1–3 and assembly in steps 4–9 of its installation guide. To review walkways and circulation lighting, consult HSE’s Evacuation and your venue’s requirements. Those references do not validate the unidentified stands in this case.

1. Test what is visible

   View it from the center, sides, and cameras with the lighting it will have in front and behind.

2. Provide panel measurements

   Clarify finished width, height, overlap, access, and attachment method with the supplier.

3. Confirm the support

   Identify model and components, and request the configuration for that fabric and site.

4. Rehearse the route

   Check bases, cables, doors, signage, and work lighting before opening.

When ordering fabric, distinguish coverage width from fabrication width

If you order “a six-meter curtain,” tell the supplier what you are measuring. You might mean six meters of fabric laid flat or six meters that must remain covered once pleats are formed. In the ShowTex fabrication guide, 50% fullness uses 1.5 times the width and 100% uses double. To cover six meters, the geometric example gives six meters of combined flat width, nine at 50% fullness, and twelve at 100% fullness, before addressing seams, hems, joins, and returns.

Send a sketch showing the front to conceal, finished height, and what is on both sides. Ask the quote to state whether pleats are sewn in or formed during installation. This changes the work required for each setup. Also check where the fabric sits when open and whether it intrudes into a walkway or light beam. To choose the appearance, a sample lit on site tells you more than a catalog photo.

Use that comparison to define what you want onstage and request both options with the same covered width.

1. Measure what must be covered

   Note visible width and finished height for each panel. Mark doors, stage edges, and changes of plane.

2. Define the finish with the fabricator

   Request fullness percentage, pleat type, and whether pleats are sewn in. The supplier must calculate cuts, joins, and fabric consumption based on fabric width.

3. View it from audience and camera positions

   Test a sample in the intended position and lighting. Also check the side view and space taken by the drawn-back fabric.

4. Compare equivalent quotes

   Use the same covered width, height, fabric, and finish. Ask what fabrication, installation, and gathering include instead of comparing only fabric length.

Keep the nap direction consistent when combining velour panels

If two black panels look different when lights come on, check their orientation too. With directional-nap velour, reversing a panel can change how it reflects light. Before ordering a new panel to match another, compare samples beside the existing fabric in the position where they will be seen.

IWEISS explains this difference in appearance and accounts for nap direction when cutting the set’s panels.

The effect depends on the fabric. As an identified example, the Velours Puccini data sheet, article 1100 describes a flat pile and matte finish. Agree with the fabricator on the front face and selected direction, and record it so installation does not reverse a panel. View the join between panels under front and side lighting from audience and camera positions. If they still differ, also compare article, batch, and condition before attributing the difference to nap.

1. Identify what you already have

   Record article, color, and batch if available. If the curtain has no identification, ask the supplier to inspect it before promising a matching panel.

2. Compare samples in both orientations

   Test samples beside the existing panel under the intended lighting. Change one orientation at a time to see whether a difference appears.

3. Agree on front and direction before sewing

   Give the fabricator the approved reference and panel diagram. Record top, front, and position in each piece’s identification.

4. Review the installed join

   Check continuity of the whole set from audience and camera angles. If there is a difference, review it with the supplier before cutting or changing fabrication.

For a scrim reveal, separate lighting on the fabric from lighting behind it

If you want to conceal a scene and reveal it with light, request a theatrical scrim intended for that effect and test from audience positions. Fabric letting light through does not mean it will disappear as expected. First agree on how much it must conceal, what is behind it, and where viewers will be.

To test GobelinTulle, ShowTex article 3420, start with the scene behind it dark and light focused on the scrim at a pronounced angle. Then fade the fabric lighting and illuminate the scene behind. ShowTex describes an opaque appearance in the first state and near transparency in the second. If you light both, the two views blend.

Program these states separately and test the transition too. Check which light passes through the weave and reaches objects or people behind. Instead of raising all front lighting, adjust focus and spill with the lighting designer. Check from center, sides, and camera angles.

The ShowTex guide calls for considering ambient and emergency lighting. Test with the lights the venue must retain and check concealment from actual positions. If what you want to hide is still visible, review material and design with the supplier before finalizing installation.

If the backdrop has seams, ask to see them under the intended lighting

Before choosing by price, draw where every backdrop join will sit. State whether it will be seen alone, behind a scrim, or as a projection surface. A seam that goes unnoticed in one use may appear as a light line, dark line, or ridge when the lighting angle changes.

Request a fabricated sample with that join and test it from the front and with the intended backlighting. View it from the sides and in the camera frame. Keep the same setup during comparison; covering the backdrop with another fabric changes the test and does not ensure the line disappears.

To compare a seamless option, check the specific article’s width. The ShowTex Cyclo 200 data sheet, article 3220 offers seven roll widths from 3.10 to 12 m. That is not the backdrop’s finished size. Agree with the fabricator on fabric orientation, edges, pockets, and final dimensions before approving cutting.

Include storage and how often it will change uses in the comparison. If a seam is accepted, show its position on the drawing and keep the approved sample. The supplier can then reproduce the reviewed finish rather than choosing the join during fabrication.

Fabric in front of a speaker is also part of soundcheck

If decor calls for hiding a speaker behind fabric, request a sample before ordering all the draping. Test it in the final position with familiar speech and music, comparing with and without fabric at the same level. Listen from the audience area: a sample that looks good close up may need another finish to look right from the tables.

Look for fabric intended for speaker grilles. Rose Brand describes Sonic Stretch as acoustically transparent with a solid appearance; that does not mean any black or stretch fabric behaves the same way. Keep the selected product code and material data sheet.

For a powered speaker, also review its manual. For example, QSC K.2 requires unobstructed ventilation and access to power disconnection. Plan with the decor team how to keep those points accessible. Approve sound and appearance with the installation complete before repeating it across all speakers.

Store the curtain with the next setup in mind

Before taking it down, identify each panel and prepare where it will rest. Keep the storage area separate from the case route: wheels, dust, and loose parts can mark the fabric.

The iWeiss guide calls for a clean surface, protecting the visible face, and storing panels in a dry place. For synthetic velour, Rose Brand recommends bags or carts made from canvas or another natural fiber that lets the fabric breathe, and avoiding pressure or heavy objects on stored panels.

Keep the material label and measurements. Record stains, moisture, or tears before closing the bag so the next setup starts with that information and time to address them.

Folding and cleaning methods depend on fabric and finish. A method for synthetic velour does not automatically apply to cotton, scrim, or painted fabrics; consult the panel’s data sheet before washing.

To gain space, check how the curtain draws back

Before counting on the space behind a curtain, ask how it draws back: fixed curtain, track, or a system intended to secure it to one side. Check where the fabric sits and how much passage remains clear.

The double straight ShowTrack with rope installation manual, §4.6, instructs fully opening the curtain before attaching its end to the end stop; it warns that an incorrect measurement can tear it. That detail belongs to that track, not to any fixed leg curtain.

If clearing a walkway requires pulling sideways on a grommet, stop and review the gathering method with someone familiar with the curtain. Record the available space with fabric in position; avoid promising more space when it still depends on changing the suspension.

Rehearse the curtain drop and collection before calling the cue

Rehearse with the show fabric and the area clear. The operator must see the drop. If one end stays attached, stop the sequence and review installation with the technician.

For Kabuki 50, the ShowTex manual includes a test without a curtain, return to the initial position, and adjustment of pins to grommets. It also instructs keeping cables away from moving parts. Use that sequence only with the identified system.

Agree on who collects the fabric and when artists may enter. Rehearse that too: the bundle left behind may obstruct the next movement.

Choose the case by its components as well as the amount of draping

Before requesting a case, inventory bases, pins, tubes, and supports. Two kits of equal width may need different spaces; test the loading route too.

The Wentex D7554 is a specific FOH example: it accepts twelve 350 × 300 mm bases and the components listed in its specifications. Those slots do not establish compatibility with larger bases.

Measure doors, elevator, and vehicle with the complete case. The specifications list 67 kg for the case; add components when calculating transport weight and ask the supplier for the load limit.

A draping worksheet to clarify what each team provides

Number spans on the plan and complete a worksheet for each. Include purpose, visible sides, finish reference, and available measurements. Clarify who took those measurements and which remain unconfirmed.

List what you already have and what you want to contract: panels, supports, fabrication, transport, or installation. Attach photos and documentation for existing parts so the supplier can review the proposal with that information.

Record who approves the sample and who authorizes the work. If fabric is purchased, agree on who receives it after the event; if rented, identify pickup and return.