I enthusiastically support the campaign to site a fully functional spiegeltent on the land adjacent to the less functional St Peter's Church, but let's not miss the point.

The other spiegeltents which have visited the Brighton Fringe Festival have varied enormously in decorative detail. The Famous Spiegeltent that came in 2004 and 2005 is the most ornate and beautiful. "The Spiegeltent" and "The Gaite" whose visit included a spiegelgarden in 2006, are less ornate, the Gaite being the plainer of the two.

This is of little importance though, as few people notice or worry about which one they are inside because the unique and magical ambience within them is largely the creation of the dedicated and hardworking team of operators and performers who, under the watchful eye of owner/operator David Bates, have brought that essential circus family atmosphere to these very special venues.

I haven't had the pleasure of experiencing Malcolm Haynes' Pussy Parlure show yet, but unless that special atmosphere is to be recreated which will of course require a spiegelgarden, including a licensed bar and additional curiosities such as the Insect Circus and that delightful man who played the skeletal remains of a piano during the last spiegelvisit, then there's not much point.

While a purple upside-down cow is capable of providing some sort of central focus to the fringe, it is not as you rightly say, to be compared with, nor will it ever replace, the quirky, timeless and wonderful world of the spiegeltent.

  • David Flack, St Leonard's Road, Hove