Brighton Spiegeltent

Hi, friends!

We’ve been looking forward to welcoming you back to Brighton Spiegeltent in May 2027, and after two years away during the Valley Gardens redevelopment, we had all sorts of plans for getting everyone together again. Unfortunately, the Council has now allocated our Old Steine home to SpiegelGardens for next May, which came as a total surprise to us and means the homecoming we’ve been working towards can’t go ahead as planned. Obviously, we’re gutted, and we know many of you will be too.

There’s been some understandable confusion over the names, so we should explain that SpiegelGardens is a separate operation, started in 2025 with Brighton Fringe and our former bar partner, The Laine Pub Company Limited. It isn’t Brighton Spiegeltent under a rebrand or a new name, and our team isn’t involved in running it.

We’re still very much here, though, and we’re talking to the Council about a return to Old Steine in September 2027. Nothing is agreed yet, and we need to make sure the arrangements work for the event and everyone involved, but we’re hopeful that next year will see us putting up the tents, putting on shows, catching up with old friends, and welcoming you all back for a season of incredible performances!

We also have some new partnerships to tell you about! Orange Beach Bars are an independent Brighton-based event bar and hospitality company founded by the team behind The Chimney House and The Cleveland Arms. They’ve got loads of experience looking after festival crowds and delivering hospitality at events across the UK, and we’re really excited to be working with them and putting our heads together over everything the next Brighton Spiegeltent could become.

We’re also developing a partnership with Culture Shift, an arts and health charity who design, produce, and deliver uplifting arts-powered experiences in communities across Sussex - tackling health and social inequalities by creating opportunities for people to experience arts activities. We’re looking forward to exploring what we can do together.

We’re hugely proud of what we’ve made together over ten seasons at Old Steine. We’ve had incredible artists on our stages, audiences willing to give all sorts of things a go, and communities who have made the place their own. Whether you came to see a favourite performer, stumbled into something you knew nothing about, or spent half of May with us, you helped give those seasons their character, and we’ve missed having you around.

So much love and work goes into putting it all on, from getting the tents up and the shows ready to making sure everyone gets a warm welcome when they arrive. Our team works across arts and culture year-round, but there’s something special about coming together to make Brighton Spiegeltent happen. Our performers, crew, producers, front of house, bar teams, and all the people helping behind the scenes have made it somewhere we love working as much as you’ve loved coming along. We want to give that whole wonderful collection of people a chance to do it again.

We’ve already had a huge outpouring of love and support, and we’ll need that to keep us going over the next few months. People have asked how they can help and, above all, we’d love to know whether you’d join us in September. Tell us what you’ve missed, what you’d like to see again, and what you’d be excited to try. Hearing from you will help us plan and show just how much support there is for bringing Brighton Spiegeltent back to its old home.

We’ve loved staying connected with you while we’ve been away, and now we’d love to hear about your favourite Brighton Spiegeltent moments. Share your memories, photographs, videos, posters, and favourite performances from seasons past, and help us celebrate the artists, audiences, and everyone else who has made Brighton Spiegeltent what it is. There’s so much more to come, and we’d love you to be part of it.

And if you’re an artist, a local business, or an organisation interested in getting involved, we’d love to hear from you too. There’s so much talent and enthusiasm in Brighton, and bringing people together to make brilliant things happen has always been one of the best parts of doing this. Drop us a line at our email address!

Thank you for all the messages, memories, and continued support while we’ve been away. Please share this with anyone who’s been wondering where we are, keep supporting the independent shows and venues that make Brighton such a good place to be, and stay in touch as our plans develop. We’re putting a lot of care into finding our way back, and we’d be delighted to have you with us.

With love,

The Brighton Spiegeltent team