A venue which was once a flagship Fringe attraction says it is being frozen out of next year’s festival in favour of an Abu Dhabi-owned pub company.
The Spiegeltent put on thousands of performances in the more than ten years it pitched up on the Old Steine before the Valley Gardens roadworks brought it to what was thought to be a temporary halt.
It says it had hoped to hire the site again now the work is complete – but the council has instead leased it to Laine Pub Company, which will put its Spiegel Gardens venue on the site instead.
Brighton and Hove City Council said it had received bids from both the Spiegeltent and Laine for the Old Steine, and had awarded the lease for May to Laine because of its relationship with the Fringe’s charity and its “commercial sustainability”.
The Fringe said it had met with the Spiegeltent last September and was always open to it returning to the Fringe – and added it was not responsible for deciding who leases council land.
In a statement published last week, the Spiegeltent said: “The much-loved fixture of Brighton’s arts calendar had expected to return in May 2027 following two years away during the Valley Gardens redevelopment.
“Brighton and Hove City Council has instead allocated Old Steine for that period to Spiegel Gardens.
“Launched in 2025, Spiegel Gardens is a separate operation involving Brighton Fringe and The Laine Pub Company Limited, Brighton Spiegeltent’s former bar partner.
“It is not a new name for Brighton Spiegeltent, and the Brighton Spiegeltent team is not involved in running it.
“The team was surprised and disappointed by the decision and remains committed to returning to its longstanding home. Discussions with the council are exploring September 2027 as an alternative.
“Arrangements are still to be agreed, but the team is hopeful that next year will see the city reunited with the Brighton Spiegeltent it knows and loves.”
Spiegeltent’s announcement comes weeks after another longstanding Fringe venue, the Rotunda Theatre, was also told by the Fringe it would not be included in the 2027 programme.
Founder Ross Ericson then said the fringe’s director Jonathan Maydew had told him this followed “a new agreement with the council to drive collaborative cultural and community goals within the city”.
But he said he believed it was because the Fringe is now more interested in running beer gardens than theatres.
The council’s cabinet member for culture David McGregor said: “Following a formal review and assessment of proposals for the Old Steine events site next May 2027, the council selected the Spiegel Gardens application from Laine Pub Co.
“The council decision-making process for sites with multiple applications on outdoor space is clear and transparent. It is based on cultural value, social value and commercial value.
“All options offered a significant cultural offer, but the Spiegel Gardens was selected due to its social value within its partnership with the Brighton Fringe charity. Additionally, there was evidenced commercial sustainability in its application.
“We’re still in negotiations with the Brighton Spiegeltent about a return in 2027 and welcome any application for alternative dates.
“Brighton and Hove is well known for having a thriving independent scene across many aspects of our city. Our event-planning process allows smaller independent organisers to hold events of any size in our city.
“Cultural and social value make up two-thirds of the decision-making process, and independent and local companies will always be welcome to apply to use our public-owned space.”
A spokeswoman for the Brighton Fringe said: “Our door has always been, and remains, open to Spiegeltent. We would be delighted to welcome Spiegeltent back to Brighton Fringe.
“In early September 2026, Brighton Fringe met with Spiegeltent representatives to explore options for their return to the festival in 2027. We made it clear then, and remain clear now, that we would welcome them as part of Brighton Fringe whenever they are ready to collaborate.
“Brighton Fringe does not control or allocate public land.
“As England’s largest open-access arts festival, our focus remains squarely on improving our support for artists and venues, strengthening local community partnerships, and preparing for another extraordinary festival in 2027.”
The council also said this week it was “resting” the Rotunda’s previous site, Regency Square, because of the number and nature of complaints from residents.
Regency Square is not one of the areas the council has applied to itself for planning permission to use as events spaces following a high court ruling which confirmed this would be needed for any events taking longer than 28 days, including set up and take down.
The applications which were lodged in May – for Victoria Gardens and St Peter’s Square – have yet to be decided, even though all this year’s planned events have now finished.
Brighton Spiegeltent Ltd was founded by Adrian Bristow in 2013, and is still owned entirely by Mr Bristow. This year it intended to partner with Brighton-based Orange Beach Bars, founded by the team behind The Chimney House and The Cleveland Arms.
Laine Pub Company was founded as Z-Cide in 2007, renamed InnBrighton shortly after, and became Laine Pub Company in 2014.
Initially owned locally, it was bought by Punch in 2021 – the same year Punch was sold to Fortress Investment Group which is 70% owned by Abu Dhabi’s sovereign wealth fund, Mubadala.
Such a shame you didn’t use a photo that showcases the extraordinary care to theatrical design and decoration that they take with their venue – and maybe use one of the beautiful Spiegeltent itself?! There are so many good photos you could’ve used available with a little bit of research. It’s almost as if you’ve deliberately picked the most unattractive photo you could find…?!
Doesn’t look like they are raising the bar at all, a pub company? More trash on the old steine.
Exctly, calling it an open-access arts festival does not equate with giving a beer garden with no culture this prime location .
David McGregor is single-handedly crashing this city’s unique culture
The words ‘David McGregor’ and ‘culture’ sit very awkwardly in the same sentence. The speigletent has been a wonderful venue with quality artists for a very long time. It beggars belief that it can be usurped by a comparatively poor substitute. Shameful really.
Cllr McGregor is just as clueless as his predecessor. When chosen by local Labour to represent tourism and heritage, he published a long statement about how he’d always liked art galleries as if that demonstrated expertise in these areas!
Hopelessly out of his depth. Can’t even sort the Colonnade toilet repairs out.
Of course it can’t go and set up where it used to, after the extensive improvement of the steine area, having it back there will create damage. Even when it had It’s original site, local residents complained about noise, pollution, antisocial behaviour. The cost of entry, is prohibitive for so many people
… there are events scheduled on Old Steine Gardens all year starting in May.
The issue is that May has not been granted to Brighton Spiegeltent, the local arts business that’s built up the event there for 13 years, but to Laine Pub Company, a foreign-owned pub company. Seems bizarre for an arts festival!
I did a quick search on The Laine Pub Group and was shocked to see how many popular Brighton pubs are within this foreign owned group. On the one hand, they employ a lot of local people, but in the other, profits most definitely don’t stay local.