Cirque du Soleil performer Colin Heath and magician and illusionist Shawn Farquar will be part of Canada’s first European-inspired circuses coming to town, Bacio Rosso Spiegeltent.

Heath has performed in Vancouver’s Bard on the Beach, the Arts Club, Axis Theatre, Leaky Heavy Circus. The award-winning performer is also a veteran of Cirque du Soleil, including Cirque Reinvente, Kooza and Volta. Farquhar has taken stages at the Riveria, Las Vegas, the Opera House, Blackpool and the Orpheum in Vancouver. He also has performed for Queen Elizabeth II while she visited Charlottetown, PEI.

Vancouver’s Queen Elizabeth Park’s Spiegeltent, called Magic Cristal, the first ever Gourmet Cabaret Cirque experience in the country. It took four years to prepare for this mystical experience.

The “living jewel box” features handcrafted woodwork and more than 2,000 beveled mirror and showcases the ramose of old Europe.

This Spiegeltent was built with an antique bar, wooden floors and benches, mirrors and fabrics.The show features a whimsical story of two siblings who are taken with a mythical tale their father tells them. The tale is about a mystical land where dreams come true and magic is real.

As part of the experience, the acoustic orchestra Combo De Lux will be performing as Chef Adam Pegg of La Quercia prepares a four-course gourmet meal for the evening. Pegg graduated from Vancouver Island’s Camosun College in 1991. He then moved to Italy to become the first Canadian to earn the Master of Italian Gastronomy.

Known as Magic Mirror Tents or Mirrored Palaces, Spiegeltents were used as traveling dance halls and provided rural communities with a venue for celebrations. They originally were popular in Flanders area of Belgium in the late 1800s.

Rik Klessens owns of the few original Spiegeltents, which is currently based in New York. Klessens is the third generation of Spiegeltent owners and manufacturers. Now he and his wife Liane Van Gorp have built Hep Siegelpales and Mirror Palace into a thriving business.