The Royal Marines Band Plymouth will be the Senior Service’ key participant at this year’s Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo, which will be celebrating overcoming barriers and unleashing human potential from 3-25 August 2018.
Following the Royal Navy’s presentational lead in 2017, the year of the Royal Navy – which saw Edinburgh Castle’s Esplanade memorably turned into the flight deck of a Queen Elizabeth Class aircraft carrier – the RM Band will support the RAF’s centenary in 2018, under the show’s theme ‘The Sky’s the Limit’.
This year the Royal Navy will use the Tattoo to engage at a senior level with several allies, whose personnel will be given the honour of taking the salute at the show.
This engagement will be supported through capability demonstrations on board a Type 45 destroyer which will be berthed at Leith for several days during the course of the show’s three week run.
As well as performing at public events up and down the UK, the Royal Marines five bands play a key operational role as stretcher bearers, assisting medical teams on warships, as well as in the field.
While the full international line-up of acts will be confirmed over the next few weeks, Tattoo organisers have confirmed that audience favourites, the Massed Pipes and Drums – drawn from across the UK Armed Forces, as well as Canada and Australia – and the Highland Dancers will both return to set the Esplanade alight.
Taking place against the iconic backdrop of Edinburgh Castle to a live audience of 220,000, the military extravaganza returns for 25 performances with a 100-minute showcase of music, dance and technical wizardry, including some of the world’s finest military bands and performers, the Royal Marines.
Brigadier David Allfrey, Chief Executive and Producer of The Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo, said, “Under our theme of The Sky’s The Limit, we will explore gravity, the history of manned flight - even into space - and the power of human potential.
“We are looking forward to exploring all manner of creative possibilities and collaborations in the production, in the international cast, in the music, in the lighting and projection and in special effects. There are some exciting prospects and some of them out of this world! It is all about unleashing human potential, not just in the Show but in life generally.”
“While we always stay true to the Tattoo’s roots with its Massed Pipes and Drums, the Massed Military Bands, our Dance Company, Hjaltibonhoga and some sensational international contributions”
