These amazing travelling dance venues are commonly known as "Spiegel Tents" (literally "mirror tent") because in recent years the Flemish style of decor filling the interior with mirrors became the most commonly seen restored structure, but with thousands of these portable structures plying their trade across the UK and Europe for more than 150 years there are many ways to describe them.

Almost every name followed the same form incorporating the local language equivalent of the word "Tent" or "demountable" somewhere in the title; and all were used for dancing, drinking and celebration so many incorporated local words for "Ballroom" or "celebration" as well. It is a somewhat academic question as to what this genre of traveling structure should be called because the reality is that such general terms were never used to describe them. Rather than huge corporations owning dozens of venues they were universally small business's - a family crafted their own structure, passed it from generation to generation and endlessly modified and upgraded it as decor and music tastes changed. Fiercely independent each structure had a name that reflected the family who operated it or a name based on a noun that reflected the image they had given their tent; villagers would never ask "when is the spiegel tent coming back" but instead "When is the Klessen's Tent" or "When is the Elegance Ballroom coming to our village". Families fought hard to create an aura around their structure that created what we would now call "branding" in order to differentiate their Tent from those run by other families.  Names would also change as the use of the tent changed - what was once "The Vuitton Family Ballroom" for elegant dancing where your parents first met would later return as "Laser Discotec" or "Wheels Roller Disco" when the next generation of teenagers came along. Although some structures are 100+ years old the reality is that over those years the shape and decoration changed many times as tastes changed and names were altered when it was time to reinvent the concept; almost every generation thought they were the first to discover the touring dance tent that came to their village when in reality these structures were just doing what they did best; bringing dance, music and entertainment to rural locations for generations.