Edinburgh, Tattoo and the Fringe

We enjoyed a weekend of fun in Edinburgh as we joined in festivities of the first week of the Festival Fringe and enjoyed our second Royal Military Tattoo! We loved it so much a couple of years ago, we just had to go back!

The 2015 addition of the Edinburg Military Tattoo is the 66th to be held here.  This year's theme is "East meets West" and incorporates a cultural exchange with China.  As always, an impressive gathering of precision military groups from all over the world entertain sellout crowds of close to 9000 people for 24 individual performances throughout the month of August. This year's event features military groups and cultural dance performances from England, Scotland, Switzerland, India, the United States, and this time China.

The Tattoo is performed at the front gate of Edinburgh Castle

In this case the title "Tattoo" has nothing at all to do with body art. In fact, the word "Tattoo," does have a direct tie to British  military history. Tattoo comes from the dutch phrase "Doe den tap toe", shortened to "tap toe" (pronounced "too"), meaning "last orders", requiring proprietors to close the beer tap. The British grabbed onto the term after being introduced to it during the Austrian War of Succession, and it became tradition for the British regiments Corps of Drums and Pipes each night to close down the taverns by playing and signaling to the proprietors to turn off the taps to their ale kegs and send the soldiers back to quarters. Through time this tradition transitioned to a respectful ceremonial form of evening entertainment honoring, and performed by, the military. The Edinburgh Tattoo brings military from around the world to do just that, entertain and honor those who serve! Attending this show is an experience to remember.

Military Pipers

The colorful cast from around the world.

A dance company from China entertained the crowd with 
a spectacular performance!

Dragon!

The Castle illuminated for the Chinese performance.

Performers from India

The Castle light display for the performance from India.

A group from the Citadel representing the United States.

Scotland's Colours on the castle walls.

One of many Fringe marques with St Giles Cathedral in the background.

Next up the FRINGE! The Edinburgh Festival Fringe is the largest arts festival in the world. There are 3000 separate shows performed in 300 separate venues with a staggering 49,000 total performances over a three week period. In addition to the show venues the streets are absolutely full of performers transforming the city into a bit of a fantasy land. We spent a couple of days at the festival. We took in some of the shows inside the venues and enjoyed some serious theatre performances, some comedy performances, and a live band performance complete with the lead singer of the cabaret group "Le Haggis" sitting on Scott's lap for a song. After all of that we spent hours walking around the city taking in the abundance of street performances. 

The Royal Mile leading up to the Castle

It turns out that our timing for this trip was exceptional as, to our surprise, we woke up on Sunday morning to find that we were in Edinburgh for the Pipe-fest 2015 We were treated to a really big parade of Pipers from around the world marching down the Royal Mile!

Those Scots really know how to throw a party! We were glad to be invited in...