Advertising arches

Advertising gantries for start, finish and entrance

Advertising gantries are advertising arches that span a start, a finish or an entrance and that put your brand or your sponsors literally above the crowd. Where an ordinary banner hangs at the side, an arch stands in the line of movement: everyone runs, cycles or walks underneath it, and every photograph of the finish contains the arch. That makes it one of the few dressing elements with guaranteed coverage in the pictures.

The arch is used by race organisers, local authorities, sports federations, companies running customer events, and managers of sites who want a permanent entrance marker. Alongside the inflatable variant there is the framed version, in which a metal structure carries the shape and the printed fabric is tensioned around it.

Applications

• Start and finish arch at running, road cycling and cyclo-cross events
• Recognisable main entrance to a festival, annual fair or festival week
• Passing point and sponsor point along a route

Versions

Framed arches come in modular tube or truss form. The structure is assembled on site and stabilised with base plates or weights. The advantage is that lighting, timing equipment, cameras or extra banners can be fixed to it, and that the arch can stay up for days or weeks. Printing is applied to flat fabrics that are tensioned around the structure with bungees or a keder, which means you can refresh the image without replacing the structure.

Materials and technique

The frames are built from aluminium or steel, powder-coated or untreated, with connectors that can be assembled without special tools. Fabrics are PVC, mesh or textile. Mesh is the logical choice as soon as the fabric area is large, because it lets some wind through and greatly reduces the load on the structure. Choose the clearance height deliberately: on a public road, emergency services generally still have to be able to pass underneath.

Placement, anchoring and safety

An arch over a road or a route is a structure above people's heads. Treat it as one. The feet have to stand on a level surface with sufficient bearing capacity and be ballasted or anchored in proportion to the fabric area and the local wind. Guy lines running out at an angle take up crosswind. Fix fabrics along the full perimeter, not only at the corners, because a fabric that hangs half loose flaps free and pulls the structure out of true.

If the arch spans a public road, a permit or authorisation from the municipal authority is usually required, and sometimes advice on the clear headroom. Arrange that early. As organiser you carry the liability for the structure, and that starts with a correct set-up and a clear agreement about when the fabrics are taken down in wind.

When an arch is not the right choice

At a narrow passage or a small event, a portal with two banners or a banner tensioned between two masts can give the same effect with less building. At a very windy, open location with no anchoring option an arch is risky. The classic mistake is putting the whole image on a PVC surface several metres wide without thinking about wind load.

What determines the price?

The price follows from the span and the clearance height, the type of structure, the number and size of the fabrics, the choice of material, the number of designs and the run, the ballast or anchoring needed, and whether we only deliver or also build, dismantle and store. Replacement fabrics for future editions are counted separately. Give us the width, the surface and the standing time, and we will work that out concretely.

Deciding together what fits

Tell us what width the arch has to span and how long it stays up. We will propose the right structure and fabric choice. Get in touch for advice and a quotation.