Battlelines drawn for the Fringe as Spiegeltent moves to George Street

The heart of the thoroughfare is being closed to traffic for a month from the end of July – after the return of buses to Princes Street – to make way for performers and visitors.

The founder of the Famous Spiegeltent venue has revealed he will be joining forces with the comedy promoter who has seized control of the Assembly Rooms from an arch-rival to locate the mirrored tent outside the Georgian building.

The venues will be competing with Assembly Theatre and Underbelly in the south side this August, in an area around Edinburgh University’s main campus, which has seen an influx of shows in recent years.

Australian impresario David Bates – who was ousted from George Square, in the south side, last year to make way for the former Assembly Rooms supremo William Burdett-Coutts – has struck a deal with the founder of the Stand, Tommy Sheppard, to promote the “al fresco” area in the middle of George Street jointly.

One half of the arena will be dominated by the main venue, while the other half will feature an outdoor café-bar where smaller-scale performances will also be staged.

The advent of the Famous Spiegeltent in George Street comes as Assembly Theatre, Gilded Balloon and Underbelly all prepare to unveil new venues in the south side in August.

Between the Assembly Rooms, on which the city council has spent £9.3 million, and the Famous Spiegeltent, the line-up will include Fringe favourites Mikelangelo, Camille, Jerry Sadowitz, Stewart Lee, Liz Lochhead, Shooglenifty, David Hayman and Les Dennis.

The Spiegeltent has been one of the most popular venues at the Fringe since Mr Bates brought the venue to the Fringe from Australia in 1996. It was first located on top of the Princes Mall shopping centre in Princes Street.

It expanded hugely after relocating to George Square in 2003, although Mr Bates ran into trouble with neighbours amid complaints over noise from late-night revellers.

Celebrated Spiegeltent cabaret show La Clique will be returning to Edinburgh for the first time in years, while a late-night cabaret show is due to get under way at 11.15pm, with the whole arena remaining open until 2am.

Mr Sheppard said he and Mr Bates would be selling more than 300,000 tickets between them for this year’s festival – around 15 per cent of the total Fringe box office last year.

He told The Scotsman: “This part of town was like the Marie Celeste without the Assembly Rooms, while it was being refurbished. We are completely refocusing the whole Fringe this year with what is happening on George Street.

“David and I actually spoke a couple of years ago about trying to put the Famous Spiegeltent into St Andrew Square garden, but we couldn’t quite make it work in the space there.

“It will be totally different to the other venues that are falling over each other in the south side,” said Mr Sheppard.

“There will be no flyposting for shows in our venues, and we won’t have any of these ugly steel fences that are ruining the look of the world heritage site. We are actually bringing in real hedges to make sure it all looks good.

“More than just a place to meet before shows, it’ll be the place to be this Fringe, to kick back with a drink and feel the festival heartbeat.”

Mr Bates said: “It’s fantastic to be bringing the Famous Spiegeltent to George Street this year, and we have a really exciting programme planned.”