The Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo - Coming to Melbourne

The Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo is coming to Melbourne.

As a child growing up in the UK I used to watch the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo on TV every year and I always loved it.  I remember the feeling of excitement I used to get, so you can imagine how happy I was when I found out that the Tattoo is coming to Melbourne.

In 65 years the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo have only performed outside Scotland three times. Sydney in 2005 and 2010 and Wellington New Zealand in 2000.  This is the first time the Tattoo have visited Melbourne and there will be over 1,200 performers participating.

The Tattoo is currently produced by Brigadier David Allfrey MBE, who took over production in 2011.  Brigadier Allfrey served with the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards. 

With a selection of the best bands and performers from around the world, the show will feature a full sized exact replica of Edinburgh Castle.

The Castle replica costs $1 million and is 25 meters high.  The Gatehouse is where the performers will enter and this has been painstakingly made like a film set from plywood and timer suspended on a scaffolding frame.

The Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo is so popular around the world, it attracts a TV audience of 100 million annually and a live audience of around 220,000 in Scotland. 

You will be treated to a once in a lifetime experience of colours, sights and sounds featuring, the extraordinary lineup listed below:

• The UK Military of Defence Bands
• The Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo Highland Dancers
• Shetland Fiddlers - Hjaltibonhoga
• His Majesty the King’s Guards of Norway Band and Drill Team
• Top Secret Drum Corps
• The Tongan Royal Corps of Musicians
• The Republic of Fiji Military Forces Band
• New Zealand Army Band
• Lochiel Marching Drill Team
• NZ Kapa Haka – Te Whanau-a-Apanui
• The Combined Military Bands of The Australian Defence Force
• The Pipes and Drums of The Australian Defence Force
• The South Australian Police Band
• OzScot Australia Dancers
• Australian Federal Police Pipes and Drums
• City of Melbourne Highland Pipe Band
• Manly Warringah Pipe Band
• The Rats of Tobruk Memorial Pipes & Drums
• The Pipes and Drums of the Royal Caledonian Society of South Australia
• Tasmania Police Pipe Band
• The Western Australian Police Pipe Band
• Melbourne University Choral Society
• Australia’s Federation Guard
• Melbourne Scottish Fiddlers 
  
  

Known as 'The Voice of Scotland' you will have the pleasure of having the Tattoo narrated by Alasdair Hutton.  Alasdair has been narrating The Tattoo since 1992 and used be a journalist for The Age in Melbourne.

The Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo is not to be missed and is playing at Etihad Stadium in Melbourne for a very limited time only from Friday 12 February until Sunday 14 February.

Details are as follows:

• Friday 12 February: 7.00pm

• Saturday 13 February: 1.00pm and 7.00pm

• Sunday 14 February: 1.00pm and 7.00pm

For more information about this fabulous even, please visit the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo website.

For bookings please visit: Ticketmaster or phone 136 100.