The plug has been pulled on one of Edinburgh’s best known Fringe venues months before its 30th anniversary season after it failed to win the backing of the city council for a return to a New Town garden.
An extended season of shows at the Famous Spiegeltent - the home of hit cabaret show La Clique - in St Andrew Square has been abandoned.
Its owner claims there is “no way” it can return to the city under tighter planning rules which been introduced for temporary venues.
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A full run of Fringe shows in August and the venue’s planned use for the Edinburgh Jazz and Blues Festival, which is staged in July are affected.
The Famous Spiegeltent, which has been housed in a number of locations around the city since its first Fringe programme in 1996, described the cancellation of this year’s run as “a distressing situation”.
Organisers of the jazz and blues festival, who were told of the venue's withdrawal days ahead of their programme launch, said they had been working "flat out" to find alternative venues for the shows which were due to be staged in St Andrew Square.
The venue has insisted that its plans had the “full support” of the business group which has responsibility for running the privately-owned square, which has been open to the public since 2008.
However the Famous Spiegeltent has suggested that new council regulations mean the mirrored tent venue, which dates back to 1920 when it was created in Belgium, is treated as a “permanent structure” if it going to be in use for more than 28 days.
However council leaders have told The Herald that “robust processes” needed for any outdoor spaces being used for “commercial purposes”. The local authority is one of the man funders of the jazz and blues festival.
The Famous Spiegeltent was at the centre of huge controversy last summer when it emerged it was being built before planning permission had been secured. The green light was only given after shows had been running for several weeks.
Councillors demanded all festival and event organisers seek approval months in advance for all pop-up venues in the city after accusing the Famous Spiegeltent’s owner of treating the city’s planning rules “with contempt”, showing “complete disregard for due process” and failing to take proper measures to protect the trees in the historic garden.
David Bates, who is based in Australia, said he and his team had been “working round the clock” and had jumped through “many complex hoops” to find a solution with the council but had been unable to secure the necessary approvals for this year’s shows to go ahead.
However the city council suggested it had been unable to approve the venue’s return to the square, which is privately owned but has been open to the public since 2008, because the correct paperwork for the venue had not been submitted.
The Famous Spiegeltent was previously based in St Andrew Square for several years but was controversially ousted ahead of the 2017 Fringe due to concerns over the impact on the square from its use for the city’s summer and winter festivals.
A return for the Famous Spiegeltent, including a 21st anniversary run of Clique, which went on to travel the world after a string of sold-out runs in Edinburgh, was announced last February by Mr Bates.
At the time, he said: “We are honoured to share this celebration with the people and the place that has forever changed all our lives.”
However controversy flared after heritage watchdogs discovered that planning permission had not been secured before work had started on the venue.
A statement issued at the time by the Cockburn Association, a long-time critic of temporary festival venues, said: “Construction is visibly underway, with the event infrastructure already in place - despite the fact that the application has not yet been determined. This pre-empts the planning process, disregards due democratic oversight, and undermines public confidence in the integrity of the regulatory system.
“We therefore call for a full impact assessment of the event’s scale, design, and duration—considering its physical footprint, acoustic and visual impacts, and implications for landscape and heritage value. It is vital that any use of such a sensitive site be subject to rigorous scrutiny, particularly when that use displaces everyday access to civic green space.
“In addition, we advocate for a strategic policy review of summer festival occupation of public parks and gardens in Edinburgh. A consistent framework is urgently needed to establish clear thresholds for permitted uses, limits on duration and intensity, and transparent criteria for assessing public benefit—balancing cultural vibrancy with the protection of shared green assets.”
Announcing the withdrawal of the Famous Spiegeltent from Edinburgh this summer, Mr Bates said “Planning for the Famous Spiegeltent’s return to St Andrew Square has been actively underway since September.
“We have the full support of the landlords of the square to continue delivering this project for at least three years. Last year was a great success and this year is the its 30th anniversary of the Famous Spiegeltent at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.
“We had had many complex hoops to jump through to satisfy the authorities. We engaged an Edinburgh-based specialist event management company to oversee the licensing and planning permission process and engaged local council-recommended structural engineers so that the approval process was curated and managed locally.”
Mr Bates said he had been unable to obtain a vital “building warrant” certificate which the council insists is needed for the venue.
He added: “This is distressing situation for us all and we have been working around the clock to find a solution.
“However it seems there is no way the Famous Spiegeltent structure can be complaint despite receiving structural certification last year.
“It seems our hands are tied. We have gone down every road possible to overturn this decision, to no avail.”
Edinburgh Jazz and Blues Festival producer Fiona Alexander told The Herald: “We were notified late last week that there was no planning permission for the Famous Speigeltent for 2026.
“Since then we have been flat out re-housing all of the concerts that we had programmed there.
"Through a combination of St Bride’s Centre, the Queen’s Hall and Assembly Festival we have been able to transfer 99 per cent of the Famous Spiegeltent programme. We are still working on the final details. The council has been very supportive of the process.
"We are very sad that such a great site will not be used in 2026, but we are grateful for the excellent companies that we have in Edinburgh who have worked really hard and effectively to reschedule and accommodate us.”
City centre business group Essential Edinburgh, which manages and maintains the garden on behalf of the square’s property owners, suggested it was too much of a “commercial risk” for the Famous Spiegeltent to proceed with its plans for this year with out the full permissions from the city council being in place.
He said: “We are obviously disappointed that the Famous Speigeltent will not be back in St Andrew Square this summer but we understand the commercial risks that putting on outdoor events inherently have.
“We really appreciate the professional support of council staff during the process and the efforts of the event producers. We very much hope that the Famous Speigeltent can return in 2027.”
Joan Griffiths, the city council’s planning convenor, said: “We have a responsibility to protect our outdoor spaces for all those who live in and visit Edinburgh and have robust processes in place for those wishing to use these spaces for commercial purposes.
“We’ve been in regular communication with the organisers of the Famous Spiegeltent, providing support throughout the application process and ensuring they were aware of the national planning requirements.
“Unfortunately, however, the required paperwork was not submitted and we were unable to grant approval, but we are continuing to explore alternative options with the organisers.”
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