July 26, 2005

Wouldn't This Be Great To See?

I saw the Tattoo once about 15 years ago, and it was a highlight of my first trip to Scotland. This year's looks to be a humdinger!

DRAMATIC scenes to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Trafalgar will be beamed on to the walls of the Castle in one of the highlights of next month's Edinburgh Military Tattoo.

The celebration of Admiral Lord Nelson's famous victory, which saw the Royal Navy overcome the combined might of the Spanish and French fleets, will be staged towards the end of this year's sell-out run of shows.

All 217,000 tickets for the three weeks of the annual event were snapped up months ago. Even seats for next Thursday's dress rehearsal were in high demand - selling out in just over an hour yesterday.

The same technology used to beam huge images on to Buckingham Palace for the Queen's Golden Jubilee celebrations will be deployed to transform the Castle during this year's event, which will pay special tribute to the Royal Navy.

The Massed Military Bands, which will include the combined Bands of Her Majesty's Royal Marines, will feature classics including Hearts of Oak, Rule Britannia and Jack the Lad.

A crack commando unit from the Royal Marines will perform dramatic "Indiana Jones-style" action sequences, including abseiling and death-sliding down on to the Esplanade from the Castle.

[...]

This year's Tattoo will also feature a poignant tribute marking 60 years since the end of the Second World War, when the entire 1000-strong cast perform the theme tune to the TV series Band of Brothers. The lone piper will also perform a specially composed piece, Lest We Forget.

It is also expected to be the first and last time all the Scottish regiments will perform at the event together.

The country's six infantry regiments are set to be merged into a single Scottish super-regiment later this year.

The Massed Pipes and Drums will feature all the bands from Scotland's infantry regiments, along with special guests from Australia's Rats of Tobruk, from Melbourne, the City of Wellington Band, from New Zealand, and the South African Irish Band, from Johannesburg.

Posted by Ithildin at July 26, 2005 11:12 AM | PROCURE FINE OLD WORLD ABSINTHE

I'd absolutely kill (well, maim, perhaps) to see the Tattoo live.

*Sigh*

Posted by: Russ at July 26, 2005 2:01 PM

This sounds like fun!! :-)

/runs to look up "death sliding"...that doesn't sound fun.

Posted by: Princess Jami at July 26, 2005 2:37 PM

Russ, it's great even when your seats are so high up you need extra oxygen! :)

Posted by: Ith at July 26, 2005 3:07 PM