On Style And A Spiegeltent

There is a festive dip into the pond of inconsequence today with a photograph I took last week of a spiegeltent being erected within the confines of Halifax's magnificent eighteenth century Piece Hall. A spiegeltent is a type of large travelling tent which originated in the Netherlands and is constructed of wood, canvas, mirrors and stained glass (not to mention - on the more modern ones - a few steel girders!). The one in Halifax will remain within the Piece Hall for the Christmas season and will be used as a venue for a variety of concerts and events (the famous Unthanks Sisters will sing there, the House of Burlesque will dance there and there is even a somewhat intriguing Silent Disco advertised). A performance to match any of these was the construction of the spiegeltent itself, and the circus-like skills of the construction crew. And the visual merging of the Georgian Piece Hall, the Victorian Town Hall, the sixties concrete and the continental style of the mirrored tent makes a fitting image to end a year that has been seeped in introspection and isolationism.