'I wanted to set up a 106-year-old Spiegeltent, not build a block of flats'

The bureaucratic battle behind The Famous Spiegeltent’s ouster

“It is all about the arbitrary decision that says that any temporary structure built on a site for longer than 28 days is classed as a permanent structure.”

David Bates, operator of the Famous Spiegeltent, attributes his cancelled 2026 Edinburgh season to a solitary regulatory hurdle. Despite backchannel talks with the City of Edinburgh Council, time has…