Today is 20 October. By our count, drawings for a Heimtextil 2027 exhibit that needs a permit must reach Messe Frankfurt by about 26 November, five weeks from now. The fair runs 12-15 January 2027 in Frankfurt, regular construction begins on Thursday 7 January, and Messe Frankfurt's Technical Guidelines want plans no later than six weeks before that start. Six weeks back from 7 January lands on 26 November.
Five weeks is enough for a design, but not for a slow one.
This checklist counts backwards from 7 January: four dates, whether your build needs a permit at all, drawings, service orders due 18 December, the fire class of curtains and bedding you hang up, and fees that arrive on separate invoices. Each rule and fee comes from Messe Frankfurt's own page or PDF; where we calculate, we say so.
Heimtextil 2027 in Four Dates
Messe Frankfurt's exhibitor information page gives four blocks of time. For scale, its final report on last January's edition counted about 3,000 exhibiting companies, 96% of them from outside Germany, and about 47,000 buyers. China, India, Pakistan and Türkiye are named among the countries with the most exhibiting companies, without a ranking.
- Early set-up: Tuesday 5 and Wednesday 6 January 2027, 7 am to 10 pm. Optional and paid.
- Regular set-up: Thursday 7 January, 7 am, until Monday 11 January, 10 pm.
- Fair: 12-15 January 2027, Frankfurt am Main.
- Dismantling: Friday 15 January, 8 pm, until Sunday 17 January, 11 pm.
Does Your Stand Need Approval at All?
Not every build needs a permit. The current Technical Guidelines are the 2026 edition, dated September 2025; a 2027 edition may replace them, so check Messe Frankfurt's page before relying on these thresholds. Here is where they draw the line:
- No plan submission needed: single-storey, 100 m² or less, 4 m high or less, and not a special construction.
- Permit required: among others, over 100 m², two storeys, or a special structure. The named examples are elements over 4 m, closed ceilings and platforms higher than 0.20 m.
A plain example, built from the rule and not from a real case. A 60 m² stand, 3.50 m high, with curtain samples along its back wall, display beds on a 0.10 m podium and nothing overhead needs no submission. Add a 4.50 m tower with your brand name on top, and those same 60 m² need a permit.
Home-textile companies have two more cases to watch. A stretched fabric canopy over a lounge may count as a closed ceiling, since closed ceilings are listed by name. A podium for display beds higher than 0.20 m becomes a special structure under that same text. Ask Messe Frankfurt before drawing either. Their answer decides whether 26 November matters to you at all.
By About 26 November: Stand Plans to Messe Frankfurt
If a permit is needed, Messe Frankfurt asks for fully dimensioned plans in PDF, for example at scale 1:100, uploaded through messefrankfurt.com/standapproval no later than six weeks before construction starts.
Messe Frankfurt prints a rule, not a date. Our own calculation: six weeks before Thursday 7 January 2027 is Thursday 26 November 2026. Booking early set-up from 5 January moves that arithmetic to Tuesday 24 November. Whether early set-up really shifts your date is our reading; confirm it with Messe Frankfurt.
Three points to settle before any PDF goes in:
- Rear walls facing a neighbour must be smooth and white above 2.50 m, unless set back at least 1 m from the neighbouring stand. A printed curtain graphic therefore stops at 2.50 m on that side, or everything above it is white.
- Logos and advertising stay at least 1 m from your neighbour's border.
- Suspended fabric. Manual chain hoist point loads are limited to 100 kg in Halls 8.0, 11.0, 11.1, 12.0 and 12.1, and to 50 kg in Halls 9.0 to 9.3, so a hanging textile with frame and tube must stay inside whichever limit applies to your placement.
Keep a margin for one correction round. If your brief reaches us in early November, there is time for a concept, a revision and a drawing set before 26 November. One arriving on 20 November leaves no room for a second opinion.
By 18 December: Service Orders and Early Set-Up
This second date is printed by Messe Frankfurt, so no arithmetic is needed. Its Heimtextil 2027 Service Documentation asks for orders by 18 December 2026 covering:
- suspensions (hanging points, see above)
- electricity, water and compressed air connections
- stand cleaning
- security and stand guards
- catering
After 18 December an express surcharge applies to certain services.
Early set-up follows a similar price step. Tuesday 5 and Wednesday 6 January cost EUR 350 per day when ordered in time, rising to EUR 440 per day when ordered from 19 December. By our calculation, booking both late costs EUR 180 extra (2 x EUR 90). Small next to the rent, but it buys nothing.
Why would a home-textile company want 5 and 6 January at all? Two reasons from our workshop: a stretched fabric canopy needs its frame finished before any textile goes up, and a curtain wall needs steaming and hanging time after the construction dust has settled. Two extra shifts turn night work into normal work.
One more reason to order early. In our experience, the electricity connection point fixes where the main cable enters, and that point belongs in your drawing. Order it while your layout is still open.
Fabric on the Walls: Fire Class and Certificates
At a home-textile fair, the decoration is often the product: curtains as a back wall, upholstery fabric wrapped around counters, bedding on display beds, sample lengths pinned to every panel. Messe Frankfurt's Technical Guidelines treat all of it as decoration material, and decoration material carries a fire class:
- at least B1 under DIN 4102 or C s2 d2 under EN 13501-1 for stand and decoration materials;
- C s2 d0 for anything used overhead, meaning no dripping while burning;
- test certificates kept at your stand throughout the fair.
"It is our own fabric" is not a certificate. If your back-wall curtain comes from your own mill, bring a test report for that exact article, or build that wall from a certified textile and hang samples in front. General Messe Frankfurt build and fire rules are in our Ambiente 2027 guide; we do not repeat them here.
In our workshop, a fabric wall starts with a certified stretch textile or a B1-rated wall covering as the base layer. Your curtain, throw or duvet cover goes in front as the sample, and both certificates travel in the site folder.
Set-Up Week and the 3 pm Cut-Off on 11 January
Monday 11 January, your last set-up day, is shorter than it looks. From 3 pm, work is allowed only inside your own area while the aisles are carpeted and cleaned, and Halls 8.0, 9.0, 9.1, 11.0, 12.0 and 12.1 must be cleared by 8 pm. So the last pallet of samples cannot arrive at 4 pm.
Our practical advice, not a Messe Frankfurt rule: have final graphics and sample textiles in your area on Sunday 10 January, or Monday morning at the latest, while the aisles are still open for trolleys. Build the heavy parts first: framing Thursday and Friday, electrics and lighting over the weekend, curtains, bedding and samples last. A late truck does less damage in that sequence.
Dismantling opens Friday 15 January at 8 pm and closes Sunday 17 January at 11 pm; every vehicle must be registered online in advance. Tell your forwarder before the fair, not on Friday evening.
Budget Lines That Arrive Separately
Rent for an individual stand at the regular rate, from Messe Frankfurt's exhibitor page, is EUR 277 per m² with one side open, rising to EUR 304 per m² with four sides open, excluding VAT. The minimum is 9 m².
Three items come on top: an environmental contribution of EUR 4.40 per m², an AUMA contribution of EUR 0.60 per m², and a mandatory media package of EUR 985.
Take 36 m² with one side open. Our own worked example, not a Messe Frankfurt figure.
Rent: 36 x EUR 277 = EUR 9,972. Environmental contribution: EUR 158.40. AUMA: EUR 21.60. Media package: EUR 985.
Total: EUR 11,137 excluding VAT, by our calculation, before anybody has cut a single panel or hung a single curtain.
Construction, transport, graphics, furniture and service orders all come on separate invoices.
We do not publish a Frankfurt build price here, because 36 m² costs very different amounts with a plain back wall and with a 4.50 m tower plus stretched canopy. Send your brief and you get a number for your project, not an average.
Your Next Step Before November
Your first real date is about 26 November, by our calculation, and it is for drawings, not ideas. Ideas have to be fixed before that. Send us your brief (size, open sides, what hangs overhead, whether there is a lounge, a podium or a fabric canopy) in early November. We answer with a 3D design, and if a permit is needed, a dimensioned drawing set follows from it.
We have built on Messe Frankfurt's fairground for Ambiente 2026 (a 200 m² project) and for Frankfurt Book Fair 2025, so the white-wall limit, the hoist loads and the carpet cut-off are things we have already worked with. We have not built at Heimtextil yet; this is a Messe Frankfurt checklist, not a Heimtextil project story. Below is our Ambiente 2026 stand, a different fair on the same fairground.
Related Projects
KUVINGSFRANKFURT, GERMANY
Send it through Get Stand Design, or write to us via Contact Us. If it arrives after 18 December, express surcharges apply to certain service orders, and for a stand that needs a permit the six-week drawing deadline will already have passed.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is the media package at Heimtextil 2027 optional?
No. The organiser's exhibitor page lists a mandatory media package of EUR 985. It is charged in addition to the rent, the environmental contribution of EUR 4.40 per m² and the AUMA contribution of EUR 0.60 per m².
How do vehicles get onto the fairground for dismantling?
Every vehicle has to be registered online in advance, and entry is only through the check-in at Rebstock. Dismantling runs from Friday 15 January 2027 at 20:00 to Sunday 17 January 2027 at 23:00.
Does a single-storey exhibit of exactly 100 m² need a permit?
Not on size alone. The Messe Frankfurt Technical Guidelines exempt single-storey stands of 100 m² or less and 4.00 m or less that are not special constructions. A permit becomes necessary over 100 m², with a second storey, or with a special structure such as an element over 4 m, a closed ceiling or a platform higher than 0.20 m.
