The Tattoo

On Thursday night Derek and I went to the preview performance the 60th annual Edinburgh Military Tattoo, and it was absolutely amazing. Because it was a preview performance the media were all over the ground shooting video and photos of the performers, but it was only distracting when soloists were performing. The tickets were half-price, so we had amazing seats that we'll probably never sit in again, but I sure got some great shots. We were 6 rows up facing the castle, so the performers would come out towards us, and leave along the openings in the stands on either side of us. We had great views of the lights and images which were projected onto the castle, as well as the various formations the marching bands made during their performances.

The tattoo consisted of about a dozen bands (plus a choir and two groups of dancers) from around the world, most of them military bands, and about half of them highland/bagpipe playing regimental bands. It was the mass bagpipe performances that I enjoyed the most, although the unbelievable drumming of the Swiss Top Secret Drummers was probably the most exciting. I'd never seen synchronized drumming with fire! They were also the only group to drop something (a flag), but that didn't take away from their amazing feats. True showmanship!

There were a ton of memorable moments, the most shocking of which was at the very start when an RAF fighter jet flew overhead as the castle's cannons fired. That blew everyone away (not literally). The first time the highland musicians entered the performance area (the walkway up to Edinburgh Castle which is now surrounded on three sides by massive stands) was really striking. Linking arms and singing Auld Lang Syne with everyone else in the stands was also pretty cool. The Last Post, performed by three trumpeters on a lower platform of the castle, was followed by the Lone Piper higher up, and this was really beautiful. And the fireworks were great (I love fireworks! although not at midnight when I'm trying to sleep).

The finale, in which all of the participants came out, was pretty amazing (the conductor was up on a platform in the middle of the grounds conducting a couple hundred people), although the singing was out of sync due to having a second conductor conduct the Canadian male chorus who were way at the far end in the castle gate. I wasn't a fan of the live demonstration of the role of medics in Afghanistan, but I understand that this is predominantly a military performance and Britain is at war (though, as the emcee stressed, they're no longer in Iraq).

The performers came from all over, including China, Britain, Tonga, Switzerland, Australia and Canada. We actually saw many of them after the show on our walk home. We live about two blocks away from the castle, so as we walked along one of the roads around the side of the hill we passed a number of coaches (which is pretty typical, as there's always tour buses around there), but Derek spotted some costumed performers in them. It turns out they were all filled with the bands and performers, so that was pretty cool.

I'm really glad we went. We weren't really planning on going this year, but as more and people we know got their tickets, realizing we'd be hearing it every night anyway, and a gentle push from Dad all worked to get us up at 6am a couple weeks ago to get these tickets. I probably wouldn't go to a preview performance again, even though it was pretty funny to watch the photographers run backwards to avoid getting hit, so we'll probably never have such good seats again. But considering we've got a good view of the fireworks from our living room window (which are so loud I jumped at midnight last night, although I think it must have also been the cannons firing that made it so shockingly loud), I think any seats in the stands will be pretty amazing.

So if you're trying to decide when to come visit Edinburgh, August is pretty darn amazing around here (and so far no humidity!). But I think I'm going to find it pretty hard to get used to the noise of the fireworks and the fighter jets every night for the next 3 weeks!