The seven tent types at a glance
- Frame tent — freestanding aluminium frame, no pegs, stands on paving.
- Peg-and-pole marquee — classic canvas on centre poles, cheapest per seat, needs lawn.
- Stretch tent — tensioned freeform fabric, rigs anywhere, open-sided.
- Bedouin tent — the stretch tent's original name; same family.
- Pagoda tent — square high-peak units, joined for walkways and entrances.
- Gazebo — 3m × 3m pop-up for stalls and small shade.
- Glass marquee — glazed premium structure for upmarket functions.
Frame tent
A frame tent is a PVC roof over a self-supporting aluminium skeleton — no centre poles, no guy ropes, weighted rather than pegged. It is the answer on paving, tar, decks and complex courtyards, sized 5m × 5m up to 10m × 30m. Durban rates and sizes: frame tent hire.
Peg-and-pole marquee
A peg-and-pole marquee hangs canvas from centre poles, tensioned by pegged ropes — the traditional function tent and the cheapest cover per seat, from R999 in package form. It needs lawn or soil that takes pegs and gives the classic high-peak silhouette. Compare framed and pole options under marquee hire in Durban.
Stretch tent and Bedouin tent
A stretch tent tensions knitted waterproof fabric into freeform curves between poles — the same structure the industry first sold as the Bedouin tent, named for the desert tents it echoes. One canopy adapts to rooftops, pool decks, sand and lawns, always open-sided unless walls are dropped. Details and sizing: stretch tent hire in Durban.
Pagoda tent
A pagoda tent is a small square frame tent with a steep peaked roof, usually 3m or 5m square. Pagodas rarely stand alone — they join in runs to build entrance walkways, VIP corners and registration points beside a main marquee.
Gazebo
A gazebo is the 3m × 3m pop-up: one stall, one braai station, one shade square, hired by the day for R450–R900. Uses and joining tricks: gazebo hire in Durban.
Glass marquee
A glass marquee replaces PVC walls with glazed panels on an aluminium frame — premium cover for weddings and product launches where the view is the point, at roughly double frame-marquee rates.
Canopy, canvas tent, dome — what people call them
Canopy hire, canvas tent hire and dome tent hire are search names, not separate hire categories. A canopy is any roof-only cover — in practice a gazebo or stretch tent. Canvas tent means the peg-and-pole marquee. Dome marquees exist at expo scale but function hire quotes them as framed structures. Whatever the name, the seat count decides the tent — run yours through what size tent you need, then check bands in tent hire prices in Durban.
Tent type questions
What is a pole tent?
A pole tent, or peg-and-pole marquee, hangs canvas from centre poles tensioned by pegged guy ropes. It is the cheapest function tent per seat but needs lawn or soil that takes pegs, and its centre poles stand inside the floor space.
What is a Bedouin tent called today?
The hire industry now calls it a stretch tent. Bedouin tent was the original trade name, after the woven desert tents the freeform shape echoes — the product is the same tensioned stretch-fabric canopy.
Which tent type is best for rain?
A framed structure with sidewalls handles sustained rain best — water sheds off the PVC roof with no pooling, and walls seal the sides. Waterproof-grade stretch tents shed heavy rain too when rigged at correct fall angles.