FringeGuru's review of this venue

The Famous Spiegeltent's ticket collector - resplendent in a trilby - sets the tone for this venue: they just don't make tents like this any more. With real stained-glass windows, crimson drapes, and the mirrored pillars after which the venue is named, stepping in sends you back in time and to another world.

And so, indeed, it should. Marlene Dietrich herself sang in this tent - although it wasn't in Edinburgh at the time. Since it was hand-crafted in Belgium in 1920, the Spiegeltent's barely stopped travelling, stopping at festivals and fairgrounds across Europe and world.

In keeping with its epoch, the Spiegeltent's Fringe programme has a hedonistic feel, strong on vaudeville and burlesque. The late-night La Clique cabaret is predictably edgy - but even the most innocent of productions here feels as though it might, at any moment, take a racy turn.

Before the Fringe kicks off, the Spiegeltent also hosts a programme of concerts from the Jazz and Blues Festival. For either Festival, arrive early to bag your choice of a booth around the side, or a table near the stage; latecomers are relegated to the less impressive (and much less comfortable) rows of seats at the back.

While you're here, it's also worth dropping into the entertaining Insect Circus Museum, found in a trailer somewhere on the site. The museum dead-pans the insect circus joke in glorious style, including press cuttings and a range of artefacts from the famed insect circuses of yesteryear.

Eating and drinking at this venue