When the first performers enter The Famous Spiegeltent on Saturday they will be stepping into 85 years of history.

Sex symbol and screen icon Marlene Dietrich sang Falling In Love Again from its wooden stage in the Thirties and since then the tent's mirrors have reflected images of thousands of artists and enraptured fans.

Like every old theatre, the Spiegeltent's ghosts travel with it, woven into the ballooning velvet canopies, circular teak dance floor and stained, cut-glass windows.

Audiences will be given a taste of its charm during the Brighton Festival when the Spiegeltent is assembled on the Royal Pavilion Lawns.

The intimate booths hold the secrets of scores of courting couples and of all the visitors who have fallen in love with this unique travelling dance salon.

One of them is owner and self-styled Spiegelmaestro David Bates.

The Australian-born jazz pianist, who lives in Edinburgh, first played on the stage in the Eighties as part of the Edinburgh book festival and became more and more seduced by each visit.

He said: "When you first walk in you fall in love.

"You're soaking up the same atmosphere as they did in the Twenties and the Thirties.

"I think that's the thing that really attracts performers. They really feel part of history. You walk in and you feel the place has got these ghosts blowing around."

Bates found himself back on the stage or organising events there year after year until eventually in 2001 he bought the tent from the owners, brewers Scottish and Newcastle. Since then he has taken it around the world - back to Australia as well as New Zealand, America and the length and breadth of Europe.

Spiegeltents were originally built in Belgium in the Twenties. The name comes from the Flemish word for mirror.

The Famous Spiegeltent, built in 1920, is one of a handful that remain. Lovingly and elaborately made by master craftsmen, these legendary tents of mirrors were used as flamboyant travelling dance halls.

More than 80 years on, the Famous Spiegeltent still has the same cabaret saloon and a glorious chandelier swinging overhead.

The same family has been putting up this tent, and other Spiegeltents, since they were built.

Johnny Klessons, 23, who comes from Rijkevorsel, a village close to where The Famous Spiegeltent was made, is the fourth generation involved.

He said: "My family knows how to put up and take down the Spiegeltent better than anyone else. I was 15 when I started. It's very specialised. The frame is made up of about 2,500 to 3,000 pieces that connect together like a jigsaw. Then we put the floor and wooden sides up. Then it's the interior - the chandeliers and velvet, the historic bit.

"I don't stay for the events, I don't have time. I just fly in to put it up, fly out to put another tent up somewhere else, then come back when it's over to take it down. "

The Brighton Festival line-up from Saturday until May 22 is diverse. There are literary and debating events during the day, including Iraq war reporter Rageh Omaar, comedy acts such as Jo Brand, and music from jazz to tango to rock.

For more details, call 01273 709709 or visit the web site www.brighton-festival.org.uk