This is the centrepiece of this year's Christmas festivities in Gloucester, the Belgian Spiegeltent. After the rather pathetic ice-rink we had last year, this is a definite improvement. It's part of a "Winter Wonderland" set up in the city's King's Square, featuring Santa's Grotto and a fake snow landscape.
The city council's website describes the Spiegeltent as "an ornate, early 20th Century travelling ballroom, complete with velvet-lined seating booths , mirrors and stained glass panels." The tent is set to host "Dickensian" feasts and cabaret dinners in the evenings. Bands are also lined up to play there, including up-and-coming indie rockers Stornoway, the bloody Wurzels ( God help us! ) and, tomorrow night, living-dead goth-punks The Damned - I'll be there!
We went in yesterday afternoon for coffee and Belgian waffles: very nice!
Soundtrack:
Soul Shakedown Party by Bob Marley & The Wailers
I'll Sing A Love Song To You by Candi Staton
At the risk of being a grumpy old man, why do I have to discover that this exists via your blog? As ever, Gloucester City Council comes up with a good idea, then hides it in The Citizen, which only a small percentage of local folk (and a very small percentage of local Damned officionados) read, what with it being a subsidiary of the Daily Mail!
ReplyDeleteStill, can't have too many waffle-houses!
I heard about the Spiegeltent through word of mouth so, yeah, top marks to the council for publicity.
ReplyDeleteI'd recommend the waffles but don't bother with the mince pies - £1 for a warmed-up Mr. Kipling? No thanks.
What a great Venue, we want it back please Gloucester city council, The Damned gig was so personal, I felt like an A -Lister,
ReplyDeleteBring it and them back !
Is that Carol The Vamp from Bishop's Cleeve? I think it might be...
ReplyDeleteI actually spoke to the staff in the Spiegeltent at the time and they said they had been very successful in Gloucester, both in terms of attendance and takings. They wanted to come back and put more gigs on. I can only assume that it was the bloody useless council that stopped it from happening :-(