TENT CONDITION AND QUALITY

It’s important to note that not all stretch tents are created equal. Some are waterproof, some are not. Some are clean and gorgeous, some are old and stained. So before booking your tent be sure to ask for photo’s. Ask if the tent is 100% waterproof, and how old the tent is. Ask if it has any stains, or any visible patches.

TENT SIZE vs COST

The next thing you should know is that stretch tents come in different sizes, and are charged per square meter (sqm). For instance, a bigger tent will cost more, and a smaller tent will cost less.  Expect to pay in the region of R30/square meter (sqm), excl. vat. The way to work out size is as follows:

Seated Dinner setting – 2-2.5sqm/person

Cocktail/Standing setting – 1.5sqm/person

Cinema Style seating – 1sqm/person

So to put this information into a practical picture, if you’re having 70 guests for a sit down dinner you’ll need a tent that’s around 150 square meters – so a 10m x 15m tent should do the trick. This would cost you approx R4500 ex VAT. If you are having 30 guests for a cocktail party then a 6m x 9m  tent should work – 54 sqm, costing in the region of R1620 ex VAT.

Keep in mind that if the weather is bad, or very windy, you might need to close the tent up a bit – ie drop one or two sides down to the ground. This will take away a bit of space in the tent, so the tent will need to be a little bit bigger.

A good tent company will offer free site meetings, where they come out to your house or venue, and meet with you to discuss the different options for your event.

LIGHTING & ACCESSORIES

Finally, it would be good to consider is adding some lighting for inside the tent, to make the tent come alive at night. The addition of lights makes the atmosphere in your stretch tent truly magnificent, and will most certainly add the ‘WOW’ factor to your event. Generally the lighting offered is fairy lights (approx R8-10/m) and ‘parcans’ – or up lights (R80 each)

Stretch Inc uses only the highest quality stretch tents, 100% waterproof, wind resistant, and fire-retardant. We offer free site meetings, just call our office on 0218204783 to book yours. We also offer lighting, flooring, heaters, and furniture to accompany our tents.

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There are a number of reasons for the rise of the Stretch Tent and the fall of the Marquee – and we’ve listed a few of them here:

• Price

The hiring of a Stretch Tent costs about half the amount of hiring a similar sized Marquee.

• Looks

Stretch Tents are beautiful to look at, with their organic lines, flowing peaks, and elegant feel. They create a stunning, atmospheric space for an event. Marquees are a lot more formal, with their straight lines and uniform look.

• Versatility

Marquees require a flat surface, in a square or rectangle shape, that is perfectly level for the marquee to be erected correctly. Stretch tents can be erected anywhere, in any space, and on almost any terrain. Stretch tents can also be set up around tree’s, and attached to walls of houses, where marquees cannot.

• Efficiency

Marquees require a large team of riggers, a large truck to transport the tent, and many hours to set it up. Stretch Tents can be set up in an hour or two, with a small team, and can be transported in a normal bakkie, which is far better for the environment!

So when you are planning your next outdoor event, and have to make a choice between a stretch tent or a marquee, keep these points in mind! And remember, there is a reason why stretch tents have almost completely taken over the events market J

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YOUR GARDEN. OUR TENT. STUNNING VENUE.

Thinking about hosting your event at home? Good call. With our state of the art bedouin tents we create gorgeous environments out of any outside area, for a fraction of the cost of hiring a venue. A bedouin tent rigged over your garden or courtyard gives your get-together a feeling of sophistication that wont be easily forgotten. And during these cold Winter months, our 100% waterproof bedouin tents are the perfect solution to any home event, in ANY weather.

WHY HIRE A BEDOUIN TENT?

Picture this scenario – You’re celebrating a special occasion. Maybe it’s your birthday, your anniversary, or just a get-together at home. You want to do something different but not sure what. You want to entertain in style but your house isn’t big enough to accommodate all your guests comfortably, or maybe your garden is looking particularly good at the moment and you’d love to show it off. But who knows what the weather will do that day? This is Cape Town after all! We have a solution for you.

OUR ALL IN ONE SOLUTION

Here at Stretch Inc we love a reason to celebrate. Any reason. Our whole company is set up to provide a beautiful venue, in any outside space. Our tents are clean and 100% waterproof, and can go anywhere. We position our LED up-lights to light up your trees, plants and walls. We string warm globed LED fairy lights through out the tent to give you a fairy-tale atmosphere in your new garden venue. We have flooring to protect your grass, pool covers to extend your usable space, and cocktail and lounge furniture to add that something extra. Our team is works neatly and efficiently and in a short time your tent is up and we’ve transformed your outside area into an absolutely gorgeous space. Regardless of the elements. It’s what we do. Its what we’re famous for.

BUT THIS SORT OF THING IS EXPENSIVE, RIGHT?

Wrong. We keep our overheads low by running our bedouin tent business with care and intelligence, and pass those savings on to you. We’re proud to say that of our main competitors, we’re by far the most affordable. Give our office a call or fill out our contact form, and we’ll send one of our space optimization experts around in a jiffy to meet you, measure up your garden, and have a quote to you in no time at all. Our great pricing  gets us clients, but it’s our efficiency that keeps them.

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Restaurants and Bars that offer a outdoors seating area – be it a deck, garden or courtyard – are often faced with the decision to either forego the extra trade and revenue generated by that space in Winter, or to invest in a permanent structure to insulate the space in the colder months. The problem with the former is no-one wants to lose their space when the weather turns, and the problem with the latter are as follows:

• Installing a permanent or semi-permanent structure is very costly, and needs to be paid in full before installation.
• When Summer comes and the structure is no longer useful, it needs to be dis-assembled, which again costs money.
• After removal it becomes the restaurants problem to store the structure until the following Winter.
• The restaurant needs to clean and maintain the structure.

Stretch Inc, always ahead of the pack, has a solution for restaurants and bars this winter:

THE SOLUTION

We are offering restaurants and bars across the Western Cape a solution to this dilemma with our Monthly Tent Rentals.

This is how it works: We measure up your outside area and advise on a tent that will suit your needs. We set the tent up at your venue free of charge, and equip the tent with fairy lights, atmospheric up-lights, as well as a large gas heater to ensure the space is warm, cosy, and inviting. If there are any issues with the tent whatsoever we offer a free call-out service, and once the sun comes out again in September, we’ll be there to take the tent down and bring it back to our warehouse. All this for one low monthly rental cost! Our monthly tent rentals work on a month-to-month basis, meaning you are not tied in to a contract, and if you feel its not working out for you, we’ll come and take the tent down, no problem.

See the table below for info on sizing, seating capacity, and pricing – and give our office a call on 0218204783 or drop us a message here if you have any queries!

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So you’ve chosen your bedouin tent, now its time to pimp your tent out with some awesome additions. You could making use of our beautiful LED lighting to create that magical atmosphere, or hire some all-white cocktail or lounge furniture. Maybe you’d like to protect your lawn from dancing feet with our event flooring or dance floor platform, or if its cold, grab a few gas heaters to create that warm, inviting, cosy space? Whatever your tastes, whatever your theme, and whatever your style, we have something for you.

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Our charity initiative – the Stretch Kitchen – has taken off so beautifully. We host the pop-up soup kitchen every wednesday evening in Cape Town, in the McKenzie Street park. It’s great seeing how many people and companies have come forward to offer their help – our team is growing all the time and together we are doing good things.

One huge help we’ve received has been from Guy Thorp, who owns Spar Kloof Street. He’s taken over the sourcing of the food as well as the making of the soup! Each week he presents something delicious, different, and nutritious, asking for nothing more than the enjoyment of seeing hungry people fed.

The great guys from Cape Cup give us boxes of bio-degradable cups to serve our soup in, and we have a great team of volunteers offering their time every Wednesday evening to help out and hang out with our homeless community, and just make it an enjoyable evening for everybody – Its really rewarding seeing friendships being built.

Thanks to all our volunteers who give of their time, week after week, to keep this initiative alive 

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And things were a bit quiet in the Stretch Inc office. So we thought: Maybe its time for a random act of kindness? We figured we’ve got the tent, we’ve got gas cookers and utensils from setting up Afrikaburn, and we’ve got a whole team of amazing people with good hearts and a lot of energy — So why not do something cool as a group?

And just like that, the idea of Stretch Kitchen came to life.

It didnt take long to find a great soup recipe full of all the goodness needed to keep a hungry tummy fed, a good location in the city bowl to set up our pop-up soup kitchen, and a few quick phone calls found solutions to our other needs.

On Wednesday 08 July we launched the Stretch Kitchen on the corner of Canterbury and Constitution Streets, and handed out our first 75 bowls of hot and healthy soup – We all knew instinctively that something amazing had been started. As our patrons left with smiles on their faces and bellies full of food, we packed up, had a chat, and decided unanimously to make Stretch Kitchen a weekly endeavor.

Our thanks goes out to all those who made this possible – Knead Bakery for generously sponsoring boxes and boxes of delicious bread, our good friend Adrian and his awesome company NDE for sponsoring our lighting, generators, and a helping hand, and not to mention all the members of the Stretch Inc crew who willingly gave their time into the night… You guys! Rockstars!

…Cant wait for next week!

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Dan Meyer on the other hand was like a “Duracell Bunny” – hopped onto garden furniture and from the get go said that he would find a solution. A reasonable quote followed and then he remained in contact right to the day of the function! Phoned to confirm what time he would arrive and arrived exactly when he was expected His team got going and with a minimum of fuss the canopy was up!

About an hr later I got a call from Dan, he was not happy and asked if I minded if he popped around a bit later that afternoon and made a few adjustments —– In pouring rain and in fading light Dan and his team arrived to make adjustments and to fortify the original simply because he was not happy … no extra charge !!!

Our function was a roaring success despite everything the weather gods threw at us. The additional structural changes made a huge difference.

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