HMS Collingwood volunteer band attend Saint Quentin tattoo

The HMS Collingwood Volunteer Band completed a successful engagement at the Saint Quentin Tattoo, France last weekend.

The Tattoo first took place in 1986 and since then has taken place every year on the Saturday of Pentecost.  Each year’s Tattoo presents performances from 6 musical formations with at least 2 of them being military. 

The event involved a parade through the town on Saturday to present the bands to the Mayor followed by the Tattoo in the evening in front of a 4000 capacity crowd at the Palais des Sports in the town.

On the Sunday there was a short reception in the morning followed by a 4km carnival parade through the town which saw the streets packed for almost the entire length.

Lieutenant Paul Watkin, Volunteer Band Officer, said “The sponsor was delighted with our performances and has indicated he’d like to bring us to Germany to perform at the main arena in Berlin next year for Musikparade.”

The sponsor, John Kroes of Machnik Music Promotion, addressed the Band saying “we very much enjoyed your performance at the Tattoo last night. You bring a traditional British marching programme which is exactly what we wanted and you performed admirably.”