Short answer: nobody smokes inside your event space, and outdoors you may set up a separate smoking area within limits. Article 2 of Law No. 4207 on the Prevention and Control of the Harms of Tobacco Products bans tobacco use in the closed areas of privately owned buildings used for commercial, social, cultural, sports and entertainment purposes that more than one person can enter. Hotel ballrooms, congress centres and indoor exhibition halls all sit inside that definition. The fourth paragraph of the same article bans tobacco use at open-air sports, culture, art and entertainment venues and their spectator areas as well, while allowing designated smoking areas at those venues. Prime Ministry Circular 2009/13 sets the size of that concession: the designated area cannot exceed 50 percent of the total spectator area. The same circular defines what counts as closed. Any space with a fixed or mobile roof, tents and canopies included, whose side surfaces are more than half enclosed, is treated as a closed area. Drop the side walls of your marquee and, legally speaking, you have built a ballroom. The money side is equally specific. Under the Ministry of Health penalty schedule in force from 1 January 2026, a person smoking in a banned area is fined 1,764 TL, and the operator who fails to meet the obligations faces an administrative fine of 24,440 TL to 122,660 TL. Below: where the smoking area goes, how large the warning signs have to be, where shisha and e-cigarettes stand, and who actually receives the fine.
Can guests smoke inside the event hall?
No. The first paragraph of Article 2 of Law No. 4207 bans tobacco use in the closed areas of privately owned buildings, corridors included, that serve education, health, production, commerce, social, cultural, sports or entertainment purposes and can be entered by more than one person. A hotel ballroom, a congress centre foyer, the indoor section of an exhibition ground and a shooting stage all qualify. Building a smoking room inside the hall is not an option either. The law permits enclosed smoking areas only in elderly care homes, psychiatric hospitals, prisons and on the decks of vessels running intercity or international routes. Hotels may allocate guest rooms to smokers, but that exception covers bedrooms, not the meeting floor. One practical answer remains: send guests to a defined area outside the building.
When does a tent or canopy count as a closed area?
Prime Ministry Circular 2009/13 draws the line. Under the circular, any area with a fixed or mobile roof or ceiling, tents and sun canopies included, whose side surfaces are fully enclosed apart from doors, windows and entrances, and equally any roofed space with more than half of its side surfaces closed, is treated as a closed area. The test is that simple. Close more than half of your marquee perimeter and the space becomes a hall in legal terms. Dropping the side walls for heating on a cold night is the most common way an open-air layout turns into a closed one overnight. Smoke drift is a separate obligation: the same circular requires venues to take measures so that smoke from their open areas does not reach closed ones. One item to watch: the Ministry of Health tobacco draft reported in the press in September 2026 proposes treating semi-open spaces such as canopies and winter gardens as closed areas outright. The draft is not law yet, but it is worth designing around.
Can you set up a smoking area at an outdoor event?
You can, within a limit. The fourth paragraph of Article 2 bans tobacco use at every kind of open-air sports, culture, art and entertainment activity venue and at their spectator areas, then allows designated smoking areas at those venues. Circular 2009/13 sets the boundary: such areas cannot exceed 50 percent of the total spectator area and must be arranged so that other people present are not affected. For a garden gala or an open-air concert that translates into a clear layout. The stage front, the seating plan and the catering line stay smoke free, the smoking area is defined off to one side, and it is drawn on the site plan. An inspection asks for that plan first.
Where does the smoking area go, and how big should it be?
Three things fix the location: airflow, doors and the catering line. Pick a spot away from the entrance and hall doors, downwind of the seating, and outside the catering and stage circulation. Do not roof it, because the moment you do you break your own rule. For sizing there is a usable benchmark. According to the Turkish Statistical Institute Health Survey 2025, 30.1 percent of people aged 15 and over use a tobacco product daily, up from 28.3 percent in 2022. Guest profiles vary, but at a 500 person reception you are planning for an area that fills up all at once during the cocktail break. Add sand ashtrays, lighting and a mid-event cleaning pass. Throwing a cigarette butt on the ground carries a 1,042 TL fine in 2026, and municipal police officers can issue it.
Are warning signs mandatory, and what size?
They are mandatory and the size sits in the statute. The first paragraph of Article 4 requires notices stating the legal rule and the penalties for breaking it to be posted where everyone can see them, in characters of at least ten centimetres in halls and three centimetres on public transport vehicles. Designated smoking areas also carry health warnings about the risks of tobacco use. In the Ministry of Health 2026 penalty schedule, missing or non-compliant warning notices cost 30,138 TL. A rented hall usually has its signage in place. Tents, gardens and temporary builds usually do not, so put the signs on the load-in list and bring your own.
Who gets fined, and how much in 2026?
Under the Ministry of Health schedule in force from 1 January 2026, a person using tobacco in a banned area is fined 1,764 TL under Article 39 of Misdemeanours Law No. 5326. The heavier exposure sits with the operator. An operator who fails to apply the bans and take the required measures faces an administrative fine of 24,440 TL to 122,660 TL imposed by the local civil authority, and breaching the 50 percent rule at an outdoor event falls under the same heading. Repetition is expensive: under Article 5 of the law, a repeat offence within one year doubles the fine, a second repeat triples it, and a third repeat in the same period closes the business for ten days to one month. Because the law addresses the fine to the operator, the report is usually written against the company running the venue. Spelling out in the venue contract who owns tobacco compliance, and who pays if a fine lands, shortens the argument later.
Shisha corners, e-cigarettes and tobacco sponsorship
All three are narrower than they look. A sentence added to Article 2 in 2013 counts every hookah and cigarette used in imitation of a tobacco product as a tobacco product even when it contains no tobacco, so a flavoured tobacco free shisha is banned indoors too. Outdoors, serving shisha depends on a licence. The Ministry of Health 2026 schedule sets a 151,192 TL fine under Law No. 4733 for a business serving shisha without a sales licence, and the 2026 fee for the shisha tobacco service compliance certificate is 43,064 TL in city centres and metropolitan areas, 39,554 TL elsewhere. E-cigarettes are clearer still: Presidential Decision No. 2149 of 25 February 2020 banned the import of e-cigarettes and similar devices along with their parts and solutions. Sponsorship is closed off completely. The first paragraph of Article 3 bans tobacco manufacturers and marketers from supporting any event using their names, emblems, brands or marks.
A five point check before load-in
One: draw the closed area boundary on the site plan and keep more than half of your tent perimeter open. Two: keep the outdoor smoking area under 50 percent of the spectator area and check the wind direction. Three: add warning signage to the load-in list and bring your own for temporary structures. Four: put tobacco compliance and fine liability in writing in the venue contract. Five: if a shisha concept is on the table, settle the licence question before the invitations go to print. We plan hall, marquee and open-air layouts around these rules and run the technical production from one desk. Send us your venue and date, and we will build the site plan with you.
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