The Famous Spiegeltent Returns
105 years young! The Famous Spiegeltent celebrates her ‘centenary plus’ this summer by returning to St Andrew Square, Edinburgh.
Article Source: The Famous Spiegeltent
Last Updated: 19 February 2025 10:09
The trailblazing original travelling venue invites you to celebrate over a century of spellbinding entertainment and the 21st birthday of her notorious, multi-award-winning house show, La Clique!
This summer, having travelled to countless cities across the world, the iconic and internationally acclaimed venue that’s “just too good to be true” (IYKYK) returns in style to Edinburgh’s St Andrew Square after almost a decade away from her home turf. An iconic fixture at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe for 20 years since 1996, The Famous Spiegeltent has been instrumental in promoting the international careers of variety, cabaret, independent music and new circus arts.
2025 marks both The Famous Spiegeltent’s 105th birthday as well as the 21st birthday of her notorious, multi-award-winning house show, La Clique!
Crafted from timber, canvas, velvet and kaleidoscopic leaded glass, with her bevelled mirrors, intimate booths, ornate bar and parquetry teak dance floor, The Famous Spiegeltent is the oldest peripatetic spiegeltent in circulation today, and has launched a myriad of multi-award-winning shows and the careers of countless artists* in its travels to the four corners of the globe.
Built in 1920 by master craftsmen Oscar Mols Dom and Louis Goor, The Famous Spiegeltent is the largest and most beautiful of the last-remaining antique Belgian mirror tents and has spent a lifetime appearing at festivals and village fairs throughout Europe, Australia and beyond, playing host to the world’s greatest cabaret performers and musicians.
Since Marlene Dietrich sang 'Falling In Love Again' on The Famous Spiegeltent’s stage in the 1930s, its magic mirrors have reflected images of raucous laughter, awestruck oohs & ahs and rapturous applause. And the dance floor has thrummed to the beat of her guests ‘tripping the light fantastic’ as indelible memories have been created for crowd after crowd of devotees and newcomers alike.
Since its inception in 2004 in The Famous Spiegeltent at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, La Clique has taken the world by storm. A theatrical phenomenon, a unique and inspirational night of live entertainment, La Clique is ‘variety’ reinvented and redefined for the 21st century — an inspired mélange of cabaret, new burlesque, circus and modern vaudeville. For the past two decades, this prestige show has played to sold-out audiences of over one million people in 21 cities across 11 countries, showcasing hundreds of the world’s greatest, most innovative variety performers, and winning countless awards along the way – including Olivier Awards for Best Entertainment in London’s West End.
La Clique embodies the Zeitgeist as the original and definitive Spiegeltent production, single-handedly reimagining a genre, inspiring an entire generation of intimate cabaret circus and birthing a multitude of shows in its wake.
In 2024, La Clique kicked off its international 20th anniversary tour at the Sydney Opera House, followed by London’s Leicester Square, and is spending the first part of 2025 traversing the Antipodes.
La Clique hits its 21st Birthday milestone upon the show’s return to Edinburgh this summer, coming back to where it all began, for an unprecedented six-week season inside The Famous Spiegeltent, after nearly a decade out of the nest. For this coming-of-age celebration, audiences are encouraged to frock up and find their inner Spiegel for a house party like no other!
The very essence of live entertainment, La Clique is a unique blend of daring acrobatics, jaw-dropping stunts, scintillating burlesque and raucous comedy. Visceral, ethereal and in-your-face, each act a masterpiece of artistry and athleticism, La Clique showcases a riotous troupe of crème de la crème artists from around the world.
This extra-special 21st Birthday edition of the show is a triumphant celebration of La Clique’s history, with a cast spanning generations; this is a season where legacy meets latest, with all performers at the very peak of their powers.
Creative producer and Spiegelmaestro David Bates says: “Leave your troubles at the doors of The Famous Spiegeltent and step into our Edinburgh-born international sensation, La Clique. This will be the sexiest, funniest and most dangerous birthday party in town, and we are honoured to share this celebration with the people and the place that has forever changed all our lives. To our Edinburgh audience, we can’t wait to return and raise a glass with you for La Clique’s 21st Birthday! Over your head, under your skin, below the belt – hang onto your hat and strap yourself in, as we present … La Clique!”
Image credit: Thierry Franco
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