Featherweight Stage Silhouette (115gsm Knit)

Featherweight Stage Silhouette (115gsm Knit) — The all-rounder of the range — light enough to move, dense enough to hold a photographic print, specified for stage banners.

Warp-knitted polyester is the fabric most people picture when they think of a printed flag or backdrop. The loops in a knit give the cloth a little give in every direction, so it hangs without hard creases and recovers its shape after being folded into a shipping box. Dye-sublimation drives the colour into the filament itself, which is why the image reads as part of the cloth rather than a layer sitting on top of it.

Stage work is lighting work. A banner behind a lit performance is competing with front wash, backlight and often a video wall, and the fabric choice decides whether the artwork survives that or disappears into it.

Best for

• Main stage backdrops
• Stage wings and side banners
• Overhead headers and truss banners
• Line-array and PA tower banners
• Festival and outdoor stage drops

Key advantages

• Dye is absorbed into the fibre, so the printed image cannot crack, flake or peel away from the surface
• Folds down small and shakes out with very few creases — practical for teams who ship and re-hang often
• Open knit structure lets air pass through, so the panel moves in a breeze instead of fighting it
• Soft matte surface diffuses light and photographs cleanly under flash and continuous lighting
• Cuts and sews readily into hems, pole pockets and sleeves without fraying at the edge

Specifications

Choosing the right specification

Opacity is the specification that decides a stage fabric. Anything semi-sheer will glow the moment a backlight hits it and reveal the truss behind, so choose a blockout or a heavy soft knit for anything lit from the rear. It is also worth confirming your venue's material and rigging rules early, since those are far easier to design around at the artwork stage than on the day.

How ordering works

• Send your artwork — Upload print-ready artwork at any stage — we check scale, resolution and bleed before anything goes to press and come back to you if something needs adjusting.
• Made to your size — Every panel is cut and finished to your dimensions. Tell us the finished size you need and how it is being fixed, and we will allow for hems and fixings correctly.
• Printed by dye-sublimation — Colour is transferred into the polyester fibre under heat, so the image becomes part of the cloth rather than a layer sitting on top of it.
• Finished and shipped — Hems, eyelets, pole pockets, silicone edge and other finishing are applied before your order is folded, boxed and dispatched worldwide.

Related specifications

This is the 115gsm version. The same specification is also made as Indoor Main Stage Backdrop, Stage Wing / Side Banner, Overhead Stage Header, and 2 more — the fabric, print method and finishing are identical across them, so the only decision is which size fits your setup.

Technical detail

How dye-sublimation colour behaves. Disperse dyes are driven into a gas phase at roughly 190-205 °C and diffuse into the polyester filament, where they are trapped as the polymer cools. Because there is no layer sitting on the surface, the printed image cannot crack, flake or peel. Colour is also wash-stable: disperse dyes on polyester routinely rate 4-5 on the ISO 105-C06 wash-fastness scale. Indoors and away from sustained ultraviolet, printed polyester holds its appearance for five years or more.

What to expect from service life. Indoors and out of direct sun, printed polyester holds its appearance for five years or more. Outdoors, published ranges for dye-sublimated polyester run from roughly six to twenty-four months depending on how exposed the position is, with the shorter end applying in high-ultraviolet regions such as the Southwest, Florida and the Gulf Coast, and in coastal or high-wind locations. Sheltered and north-facing installations reach the longer end. Coated and tarpaulin-grade constructions extend beyond that band because the coating carries the UV load.

Best suited to

Indoor and sheltered outdoor work where you want a light panel that moves with the air — flags, backdrops, promotional banners and anything that ships folded and re-hangs quickly.

Also in this range

For fully exposed permanent installations, our Oxford and coated ranges carry the weather; for a completely opaque back, see our blockout range.

Not sure which fabric is right? Order a free swatch pack and see the weight, texture and finish in your own hands before you commit to a full run.