Edinburgh is a frenzy of activity during August. One of the biggest draws during this time is the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo, a daily performance held inside a temporary stadium that is erected in front of the castle each summer. Military bands from around the world are invited to perform, and the whole thing ends up being a lot more interesting than the words “military bands” might lead you to expect.
Last year around this time, a friend came to our going-away party in Munich with the following piece of advice: book tickets for the Tattoo now. Tickets go on sale at the beginning of December, and they sell out quick. Heeding his sage words, we did indeed purchase tickets last December. We didn’t really know what to expect, but it sounded like the kind of thing we’d want to see at least once during our time in Edinburgh, so why not now?
Rarely do we purchase tickets to anything so many months in advance, but we knew we’d be spending our first August in Edinburgh firmly in Edinburgh, soaking up all that August-in-Edinburgh goodness that we’d heard so much about, so it seemed a safe bet.
I’m hard-pressed to sum up the Tattoo in a couple of sentences. Going into it I knew to expect a whole lot of bagpipes, but otherwise didn’t really know what we were getting into. A whole lot of bagpipes was accurate. It was an extremely windy (although thankfully dry) evening, and we were impressed with the stoicism the pipers maintained as their furry hats and kilts whipped about them.
After the bagpipes, the international acts came on. The Mexicans delighted us with mariachis and Day of the Dead dancing. The dancers from South Korea did a mighty good job of handling their very flowy costumes in the high winds. The New Zealand Army band proved itself to be the most entertaining military band in the history of the world. Edinburgh Castle served as a backdrop for all the performances, changing color and pattern often.
The entire show had an air of ‘what could possibly come next?’ about it. One of the final acts was an improbable gang of trick-motorcycle-riding youths from London. The horse puppet from the play War Horse took a turn around the stadium, as well, clearly upstaging the real Shetland pony who also made an appearance. The grand finale involved all the performers returning to the esplanade while the audience was invited to join in on a rendition of Auld Lang Syne (which the audience sang so enthusiastically that they could be heard all over Edinburgh’s city center every night).
For a more detailed description of the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo, this Guardian article makes for some interesting reading. You can also watch a highlights video on the official Tattoo website.
Who should go? People who enjoy live music and dance (and don’t mind sitting outside in unpredictable Scottish weather).
Who should skip it? Tourists on a very limited budget (there’s plenty of less-expensive entertainment to be found in Edinburgh that month); hipsters.
You can buy tickets to the 2014 tattoo (1-23 August) online starting 2 December 2013. Plenty of other outlets will sell you price-inflated packages that include Tattoo tickets, meals, and other such things all rolled into one, but unless you really enjoy overpaying for things, I’d stick to getting tickets from the official site and planning the other bits of your trip yourself.
They have one of these each year in my (original) hometown every year (though it’s only on for a week or two I think, and inside). Best part is that it’s often around Canada Day, and a lot of the visiting acts will participate in the Canada Day parade, so you often get to see Swedish rhythmic gymnasts, Japanese drummers and Norwegian drill teams do at least a part of their thing for free.
Sounds very cool! I wish the visiting Tattoo acts would get out and do a little street theater at the Fringe. Would definitely be an improvement over I-can-stuff-my-body-through-a-tennis-racket guy.