Edinburgh Military Tattoo

The premier bagpipe event is taking place right now, The 58th Edinburgh Military Tattoo This is basically a huge show put on by military bands. It runs from August 3-25 and it always sells out.

Taking a look at their program here are some of the highlights:

Massed pipes and drums from Scotland, Australia, and Oman.
A marching corps from a girl's high school in Taipei, Thailand.
A fife and drum ensemble from New England here in the states.
Highland dancers from Scotland, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and South Africa.
The Imps Motorcycle Display Team (sounds interesting!).
A band from Russia.
At the end a huge 1,000+ performer finale.

Some other interesting things I found out...

The word "tattoo" dates to the 1600's. Apparently at night the drummers were sent into town to encourage the inn keepers to turn off the taps and get the soldiers back to their barracks for the night.

The first Edinburgh Military Tattoo was in 1950.

217,000 see the Edinburgh Military Tattoo

The US equivalent of this event is the Virginia International Tattoowhich takes place in April (the Imps Motorcycle Display Team is booked here as well).

Basically, this event sounds awesome. And if you don't like the music, it takes place at the same time as Edinburgh's Fringe Festival, a huge performing arts festival.

Attending the Edinburgh Military Tattoo is definitely on my life list of things to do before I die.

Pipe on!