Christmas Spiegeltent

Spiegeltents have always been the domain of night owls, heartbreakers and dream chasers. They are legendary symbols of wild fin-de-siécle nightlife. Literally translated as mirror tents, spiegeltents were originally built in Belgium in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Designed as travelling ballrooms, the mirrors were important as they allowed discrete eye contact to be made across a crowded dancefloor. Originally known as the magic mirror tents they travelled from fairground to fairground across Flanders and Holland. In 1912 one pitched up in a town called Lommel. One local, a young cabinet maker by the name of Willem Klessens fell in love with the place and promptly brought it. His success with his new venture led him to build, buy and restore further tents until he was known throughout the region as the ‘King of the Magic Mirror Tents’. Exactly one hundred years after Willem made his initial investment, his great grandson Rik Klessens still lovingly looks after the greatest collection of spiegeltents in the world. These days they travel not between fairgrounds but from country to country, crossing oceans and continents to bring a bit of that magic to cities and festivals across the world.