Exact date and time you can watch Red Arrows fly over Scotland's skies
Thousands are set to gather in Edinburgh this weekend to witness a spectacular flypast by the Red Arrows as part of this year's Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo.
A highlight of the summer calendar, the Tattoo features a series of breathtaking performances on the Esplanade of Edinburgh Castle.
Tickets for the show, which runs from August 1 to 23, are always in high demand, but even those without entry can still enjoy the aerial displays from vantage points across the city.
The Red Arrows will take to the skies over the capital this Saturday (August 9), with the flyover scheduled for approximately 6.15pm, weather permitting.
Good views can often be found at Calton Hill, the Vennel off the Grassmarket, the Royal Mile and Princes Street, though these spots are expected to be especially busy during the Fringe.
This year, the Tattoo celebrates its 75th anniversary with an expanded programme of flypasts involving aircraft from the Royal Air Force and the British Army, including the return of Apache helicopters.
Flypast schedule for the 2025 Tattoo
07 August: RAF Typhoon
09 August: Red Arrows, approximately 6.15pm
20 August: To be confirmed
21 August: Apache helicopters
22 August: Apache helicopters
Jason Barrett, CEO of The Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo, said: 'We were born from the spirit of post-war celebration, and that legacy continues to inspire everything we do.
"The Flypasts are a demonstration of the Tattoo's support and commitment to the UK's defence forces and are a cherished tradition and a much-loved highlight of our Show, stirring pride and joy in equal measure.
"This year, as we mark our 75th anniversary, we are honoured to welcome aircraft from both the RAF and the Army. As we turn our eyes to the sky, we're reminded of the extraordinary dedication of our armed forces, at home and around the world."
The tradition of the flypasts traces its roots back to the earliest days of the Tattoo. Born in 1950, just five years after the end of the Second World War, the event was created to lift the nation's morale during a period of recovery.
Many had lost loved ones and were rebuilding their lives, and the Tattoo offered a sense of hope and celebration.
Over the past 75 years, the flypasts have become a poignant and symbolic feature of the event, honouring those who have served in the armed forces and remembering those who made the ultimate sacrifice.
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The 2025 Tattoo promises to be a particularly special edition, with performances from military bands and cultural troupes from the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Canada, Germany, Poland, Ukraine and the United States of America.
Spectators attending the Tattoo or watching from nearby should plan ahead and arrive early to secure a good viewing spot, especially for the Red Arrows display.
Those hoping to catch the aircraft flyovers are also advised to check for any last-minute updates due to weather or operational changes.
You can find out more about the Tattoo on their official website.
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Scotsman
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Footage shows the Red Arrows soaring over Edinburgh Castle on August 9. Other Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo flypasts include an August 20 flypast, with the aircraft to be confirmed, and Apache helic
Footage shows the Red Arrows flying over Edinburgh Castle, with more Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo flypasts scheduled for later in the month. Sign up to our daily newsletter Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to Edinburgh News, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... In footage, filmed by Jack Henderson - @capturedbyjack on Instagram - and Colin Nicol, the Red Arrows can be seen flying over the castle, showing off their signature red, white and blue smoke trails. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad The Red Arrows fly over the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo at Edinburgh Castle on August 9. | Jack Henderson @capturedbyjack / Colin Nicol When are the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo 2025 flypasts? Other Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo flypasts include an August 20 flypast at 21:30, with the aircraft to be confirmed, and Apache helicopter flypasts at 21:30 on August 21 and 22. The Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo runs until August 23.
The Herald Scotland
4 hours ago
- The Herald Scotland
Let's talk (and laugh) about sex: Comics confess bedroom horror tales
Be warned, these are comedians talking, so there will obviously be some rather adult content ahead in this week's Big Read. Stop now if you think you're likely to be offended... Hal Cruttenden When discussing dating in the digital age, many roll their eyes and say it's far too depressing and no way to find real love. I admit that I am yet to find lasting love on the apps, but they helped turn me from a man who felt rejected, unconfident and overweight – into a man who felt accepted, attractive and overweight. (Image: Steve Ullathorne) Dating apps transported me into the most exciting time of my middle-aged life. It's hard to underestimate what being left, after 21 years of marriage, does to you. The person I felt closest to, my best friend – although I was never her best friend, that was Lisa – no longer wanted to make a life with me and didn't find me attractive any more. 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Avoid these cliches: • 'I'm a glass-half-full type of person!' That's an immediate swipe left for me. It sounds like you're trying too hard to look happy, which probably means you're not. • 'I'm looking for a partner in crime.' Who are you? Rosemary West? • 'I'm equally at home in a little black dress and heels as I am in walking boots.' To this one I wrote 'Me too!' And she blocked me Hal Cruttenden's new stand-up show Can Dish It Out But Can't Take It will be at the Pleasance Courtyard Cabaret Bar at 9.30pm throughout the Fringe Ria Lina I'VE been single for three years, but still live with my ex-husband, which really streamlines the question 'what are you looking for' The answer is: a mortgage. TLDR* I got married while I was at uni to a man in his 40s – because I believe in learning the hard way. Fast-forward two decades: we share children, a cost of living crisis and, therefore, a flat. (Image: Ria Lina (Picture: Steve Ullathorne)) But I'm finally back out there, if by 'out there' you mean there exists a dating profile of my face, my preference for pineapple on pizza, and three truths I jokingly pretend are two truths and a lie. JK** they're all true, 'cos I'm just that quirky and amazing. Unfortunately, modern dating isn't about connection, it's about branding. The apps want me to distil my essence into six photos, one punchline, and a job title that sounds non-threatening but still implies I can pay for half the meal. I'm a stand-up comedian, which is a red flag for anyone looking for emotional stability, so instead I say 'journalist'. It serves for feisty and intelligent, but minus the if-we-date-I-will-turn-you-into-publicly-accessible-art-on-social-media vibe that can be such a turn-off to delicate men. Unsurprisingly, I struggle with online dating. I'm half Filipina, half-German, which makes me 'vaguely Asian' and far too ethnically ambiguous for the algorithm. It thinks I'm an AI-generated stock photo and keeps asking me to replace it with one of my own. Most of my matches are men who assume I'm Western enough for their tastes, but ethnic enough to take home to their first-generation traditional mothers. What a shock their mothers would get if they found out I'm more educated than their sons, earn more money, and have already had all my children. Sorry Auntie! If I do go on an actual date, do I tell them this date or the next that I still live with my ex? Although full disclosure: I have yet to get to a second date. The last guy I met from an app talked so much about himself I never even got the chance to tell him my real name… Ria Lina's new stand-up show Riabellion will be at the Monkey Barrel Cabaret Voltaire at 2.25pm throughout the Fringe Tiff Stevenson AS a fortysomething woman who was with my husband 15 years before we got married, you may as well ask me about dating in the Neolithic era. I do, however, consider myself an enthusiastic spectator of this brutal sport. A world of excruciating descriptions of hobbies for people who will never read them. (Image: Tiff Stevenson (Picture: Steve Ullathorne)) I was fascinated to know that my friend swiped left while on the toilet. Literally rejecting men as she took a dump. Maybe that's evening out the score a bit? It's generally tougher for women out there, even if Bumble has women in the lead. I was last dating in an era when there were a few dating websites. In fact, my husband cancelled a date on because we got together. Then there was also OKCupid and Plenty of Fish but I think with global warming and super-trawlers, all of a sudden there weren't that many fish any more. To be honest I don't know how I'd cope as a woman in my 40s on a looks-based app where men in their 50s want to date twentysomethings. I think they are now developing apps for older, single people like OurTime. I've even heard they are thinking of doing middle-aged Love Island. I'm keen to see how that pans out – people refusing to drink because their indigestion is playing up. 'Good on paper' will just mean everyone showing their prescriptions. I'm from the era of mix tapes, sometimes with personalised recordings thrown in between songs. An era where you had to split the bill in the moment because you couldn't PayPal it later. If you liked them there was no FaceTime – it was text or phone or, worse, ringing a house phone and talking to a questionable flatmate. What I'd love for young people to do now is experience true love like my generation of millennials: bang someone at work after getting drunk at the office party, then transition into a relationship because someone has reported you to HR. Ahhh romance. Tiff Stevenson's new stand-up show Post Coital will be at the Monkey Barrel Hive 1 at 2.50pm throughout the Fringe Read more Neil Mackay: English nationalism will be the death of the union Neil Mackay: Labour is a psychopathic government that's just as bad as the Tories Neil Mackay: For some she'll always be guilty simply of being Nicola Sturgeon Neil Mackay: We're not an island of strangers. But I'm now a stranger in my own land Laurie Magers I MET my convict ex on a dating app. Of course I did, I love dating apps. I know they don't have the most sparkling reputation, but I love them. I love how they gamify dating. I love how they gather all the nearby singles into convenient little boxes for me to thumb through at my leisure. I love that there are tons of different apps to suit the needs of any sort of dater, or my mood at any given moment. (Image: Tiff Stevenson (Picture: Steve Ullathorne)) For the past 15 years, I've met all my partners online. From one-time hook-ups to casual arrangements to long-term relationships. Dating apps have always provided. I used a wide variety of apps. I've had paid accounts on serious dating sites like swiped through hundreds of profiles on Tinder, and looked for other women on Her. Just like IRL*** dating, sometimes I would hit and sometimes I would miss. I should also mention that I am admittedly and undoubtedly a full-blown love addict. But there was one app I knew I could always open and secure a date. Plenty of Fish. It was like the discount store of dating apps. Look, I don't know that my experience is universal, maybe I just got really unlucky, but every single person I met through POF was a disaster. An unemployed video game addict who lived in his mom's detached garage. Dated him for months. A woman who lied about her age and forced me to fold her laundry. And my ex. A violent multi-felon. He messaged me on POF and, as I always did, I asked to meet up immediately at a bar. 'I can't leave the house after nine,' he wrote. 'I have an ankle monitor. I'm on parole.' At the time, that was the sexiest text I'd ever read. Four months into dating, he got locked up again and I stayed with him for two years of his incarceration. This probably wasn't the best choice. But I got a wild story and a great solo show out of it, and I have Plenty of Fish to thank. Do You Accept These Charges? will be at the Pleasance Courtyard Below at 3.10pm throughout the Fringe Aideen McQueen With online dating, the biggest cliches are really good advice. 'Be yourself' is the main thing I've learned over the years. I know that sounds more clichéd than someone saying, 'No sugar for me, I'm sweet enough as it is!' – but it works. I treated it all like an audition: my profile was a beige smoothie of generic hobbies like hiking, travel and the gym. I laughed at everyone's jokes like a Japanese schoolgirl, was offensive to no-one and appealing to almost as few. But bland doesn't win hearts. You have to be honest about your weirdness. (Image: Aideen McQueen (Picture: Steve Ullathorne)) If you hate dogs, say it. If you grow your toenails into tiny claws, own it. Your tribe will follow. I used to write that I was a 'social drinker', even though I'm a recovering alcoholic. I didn't want to 'scare people off'. Now my profile says: 'Just because I don't drink doesn't mean I can't make mistakes.' And you know what? That one line has worked wonders. The same applies to photos. I used to have super-flattering ones without a freckle in sight and more filters than a Brita factory. But now I've learned to use photos that reflect how I actually look, and embrace my flaws. If you're curvy, stop hiding behind weird angles or top-down shots. Embrace it. Show your body as it really is. Sure, some guys won't like it, but who cares? The ones who do like it are the ones you actually want to meet. I spent years trying to shrink myself into someone else's ideal. Now I just show up as me. I tried everything to meet a man. All the apps, online dating coaches, even a posh gym. I went on so many blind dates the British Guide Dog Association got in touch. But I overlooked one crucial thing: I wasn't being nice to men. Honestly, men can start to feel like the enemy after a while. I remember going on a date with someone I wasn't even sure I liked – because I hadn't been honest in my profile – and my attitude was awful. Defensive, snarky, impatient. So now I ask myself: 'Would I say that to a friend?' If the answer is no, I don't say it to a man either. Aideen's theatre show Waiting For Texto will be at the Gilded Balloon Patter House Nip at 2.20pm throughout the Fringe Britt Migs Could you fall in love with a sex bot on Instagram? My ex-husband did. It cost him $700 in iTunes gift cards. It cost me our marriage. They're not fearmongering when they say AI is coming for all of our jobs. AI took my job of 'wife'. Social media blurs the lines between what's real and what we want to be real. Now add AI into the mix, and this becomes a cautionary tale. (Image: Britt Migs (Picture: Dev Bowman)) How is a man supposed to properly cheat on his wife when he can't tell which of the beautiful women in his DMs are sentient? Hint: if she says 'big boob sexy girl here for you' keep scrolling. In this new digital age of dating, we have to be increasingly more careful – with our hearts and bank routing numbers – lest we make the same mistakes as my ex. No surprise, I was digital dating's number one hater, but I still couldn't avoid it. Shortly after this Insta-cheating scandal, I was thrust back into the world of online flirting via eager likes, thirst traps, and story stalking. I quickly regretted making it clear online that I was single again, as my DMs were promptly flooded with strange men and even stranger requests. My fellow ladies know that for every DM a man receives from a bot, there's a very real man sending a DM to us that says 'send feet pic'. But lo and behold, what ended my marriage – and perpetuated the creepy messages I received – also gifted me the love of my life. I stumbled across the Instagram profile of another comic who quickly became my online crush. Funny? A certified hottie? Immediate follow. They were queer, and so was I – I just hadn't made that clear enough on social media yet. That's right, the 'G' in LGBTQ+ stands for 'Got Divorced'. We laid the groundwork by exchanging likes on each other's photos until the tension built up so big it could no longer be contained by the Cloud. Finally, I received a DM I actually wanted to read: 'Hey, are you queer?' Britt Migs's debut stand-up show Dolphin Mode will be at the Underbelly Buttercup on George Square throughout the Fringe Ismael Loutfi I'M 32 and I've been divorced twice. I got married the first time when I was 17, to a classmate in my Senior Year. It was a Sharia marriage, meaning there were no legal documents involved, but the Muslim community in my hometown viewed it as legitimate, as did I. The marriage only lasted six months. One day, my wife called me while she was at summer camp and told me she didn't want a husband – she wanted a boyfriend. So, we ended the marriage and broke up. (Image: Ismael Loutfi (Picture: Mandee Johnson)) That phone call was the only tangible impact that technology had on our relationship, and its effect was to end the thing. I met my second wife on Facebook, and the marriage lasted three years. So, based on my own experience, it would seem meeting online works better than meeting in person. But I know this isn't the case… I'm currently on two dating apps: Salaams, for Muslims trying to get married; and Hinge, for non-Muslims trying to be in a situationship for two weeks. I regularly go through the ritual of downloading these apps and then deleting them several months later, as many people do. The initial hit of seeing hundreds of women all trying their best to be their sexiest is alluring, but the facade quickly fades. Much has been said about the gamification of online dating, but the apps aren't a game, they're a cheat to the game that dating already is. As anyone who's gamed knows, after you start using cheats and hacks, the game itself loses that very antagonistic value that makes it fun in the first place. You begin to see the finiteness of the world you're playing in and experience a sense of dread that you're wasting your time. So, too, does online dating fill the user with a sense of dread. What at first appears as a limitless field of potential lovers quickly transforms into a fixed set of personality types, quirks, and catchphrases. What does 'let's build an empire together' actually mean? You begin to see the digitised walls around you, and the obviousness of how limiting, rather than freeing, the framework of online dating fundamentally is. And then you flush the toilet. Ismael Loutfi's stand-up hour Heavenly Baba will be at the Assembly George Square Studio 5 at 6pm throughout the Fringe Mary O'Connell I LOVE being consumed by a new crush. It's so nice having someone else live in my brain for a bit. It's like a holiday from your own thoughts. 'Move in shirtless man on bike from the park. See how you like staying there. Give me a break.' (Image: Mary O'Connell (Picture: Rachel Sherlock)) I'm actually really good at dating – if I don't like you straight away. Correction, if I don't get obsessed with you, I'm funny, charming, exciting and a bit aloof. However, if I get infatuated with you, I will still be all those things on the surface. But underneath I am googling how to make your star sign obsessed with me; wearing my perfume in an arguably manipulative way; and looking at when you were last online on WhatsApp, judging what time you go to bed, and making plans on how to make your sleep schedule more aligned to mine. It's easy to be infuriated because you know where everyone is at all times. Here you are at the beach not replying to my text, at the coffee shop not replying to my text, at a funeral not replying to my text. Some people are so insensitive. I would never stoop so low as to watch any of my love interest's Instagram stories, I do have some pride. But I will meticulously sift through every name of who's watched my IG**** stories in order to find said lovers. Smirking, as I spot their names: 'These losers are obsessed with me.' I know I may seem intense, but allow me, I'm a romantic, and even worse I'm in the arts. I pride myself in being able to get over crushes quickly. It's savage really, considering all I'd had planned for them in my head. Most of them didn't even know we were getting married. I love a bit of chaos. We've had hot girl summer, brat summer – how about 'messy-should've-worked-it-out-in-therapy summer'? I go a bit crazy if I'm not getting attention from someone who wants to bang me. It is a problem and I'm not working on it. Mary O'Connell's stand-up hour Dilly Dally will be at the Pleasance Courtyard Attic at 7.15pm throughout the Fringe Dylan Adler I WAS fully out of the closet when I arrived in New York City for college in 2014 and was ready to start dating and kissing boys. My first official date was through Tinder and I was incredibly nervous. I took 45 minutes styling my hair. The date was fun but didn't lead to anything more. The first time I lost my virginity was about one year later with someone I met on Tinder. He was a 25-year-old Vietnamese gay. The experience was fun and we still keep in contact and run into each other a lot because the gay Asian world is very small. (Image: Dylan Adler (Picture: Kim Newmoney)) Afterwards, I started using Grindr which is exclusively for sex. I have also used it to promote my comedy shows to horny gays who have nothing to do that night. After a while I deleted Grindr out of frustration with how fleeting my experiences felt. In 2022, I met my first boyfriend in person on the dance floor of a gay bar in NYC. Vintage! I asked him if he wanted to dance and he said 'no'. I went home with my tail between my legs, but the next day I got a DM***** from someone on Twitter saying: 'Sorry about last night, I was with my cousin and didn't want to make it weird. Let's get dinner.' Then he became my first boyfriend. If not for Twitter, that never would've happened. I'm now single and back on Grindr being very slutty. Grindr is fun while touring comedy on the road because you get to have sex with people that you may never see again. So chic! I used Grindr while opening for Atsuko Okatsuka in Europe this February. European boys are really something else. Ten out of 10. For safety, whenever I went on a hook-up, I would share my location with Atsuko and one time she saw that I was in a river in Zurich, Switzerland. I was just taking a walk by a river after a fun hook-up, but she was understandably very scared. Dylan Adler's comedy show Haus Of Dylan will be at the Pleasance Courtyard Beside throughout the Fringe Seaton Smith Dating apps. Why do you need them? Because we are busy people who don't have the time to find the perfect person outside of our jobs, local bar, or walking the streets sobbing. If you are searching for love – the internet has got you. Convenient love. Special delivered love. Like Amazon Prime love. I know there are levels to it. Tinder is for hook-ups. Hinge is for a relationship. Bumble is for BDSM submissives. But how do you navigate it? How do you find success? How do you avoid being swiped to the left like a booger on a T-shirt? (Image: Seaton Smith (Picture: Mindy Tucker)) There was a time I used to think it was the land of milk and honey. But then I realised that it's a lot of work. Sitting there swiping over and over like I'm playing bingo. Then, when you finally get a match, the game is to try to talk informally via message. But I'm so tired by the time I get the match I forget that I am supposed to talk. I don't even care. And to be honest I have made mistakes myself on dating apps. I've said dumb things like 'Hi', ''Hello', or 'What's up' and 'How are you doing?'. All toxic things, according to women ranting on Instagram. I met one girl who had a middle room with no windows. It was like having sex in an oven. I matched with a woman who didn't look like her pictures and I felt no chemistry and I insulted her country. She was from Sydney, and I told her a story of my first day visiting Australia where I saw a Trump rally across the street from my hotel. There were only five people on the corner but they were yelling something about immigrants. And I was watching them in awe… until I realised I was an immigrant. One of the local police told me 'everything is gonna be okay' and looked embarrassed. Anyways, the Australian date hated that story. Probably my biggest mistake was on OkCupid, when I met and moved in with a woman after three weeks. But it was a brief love affair… that lasted five years. Thankfully, dating apps are figuring out more and more ways to be helpful. They are offering you more access for more money, adding status and perks if you pay more and more. Eventually, there will be one financial solution that is inevitable… hooker apps. Seaton Smith's stand up show Trauma Bonding will be at the Pleasance Courtyard Bunker 3 throughout the Fringe GUIDE TO DIGITAL LINGO In case you're not up to speed when it comes to online chat, here's an explanation of some of the slang used by the comics *TLDR: too long, didn't read **JK: just kidding ***IRL: in real life ****IG: Instagram *****DM: Direct Message TICKETS FOR ALL SHOWS ARE AVAILABLE AT
The Herald Scotland
4 hours ago
- The Herald Scotland
Meet the theatre director reinventing Edinburgh's Tattoo
Alan Lane, a self-confessed 'mad fan' of the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo, spent the best part of 18 months plotting and planning how to reboot the world-famous event in its 75th anniversary year 'without messing it up.' Read more: The long-time theatre director was hired to take the event into a new era after a global recruitment drive for a new mastermind to 'build new generations of fans' and lead the development of future shows 'which meet, and where possible, exceed audience expectations.' The resulting show combines reworked 'greatest hits' and 'sacred cows' from the Tattoo's past 75 years with new a series of innovations. Actor Terence Rae plays the new role of the storyteller in this year's Royal Edinburgh Miliary Tattoo. (Image: Jane Barlow/PA Wire) These include the introduction of an actor as storyteller on the esplanade, a light-hearted animated sequence on the castle walls, the Tattoo's first ever drone effects and hundreds of choir singers joining the 9000-strong audience in the stands around the arena for the finale. The Tattoo is also honouring 'everyday heroes' from all walks of life throughout the show, including projecting their faces onto the castle, while the Ukraine Naval Forces Orchestra are among the special guests appearing throughout the three-week run until August 23. Mr Lane's musical programme features a mix of classic Tattoo anthems such as Loch Lomond, Scotland the Brave, Amazing Grace, Highland Cathedral and Auld Lang Syne with Scottish pop and rock hits by The Fratellis, The Proclaimers, Lewis Capaldi, Simple Minds and Travis, as well as Tartan Army favourite 'Yes Sir! I Can Boogie,' by seventies disco favourites Baccara. (Image: Duncan McGlynn) The Yorkshireman took over last spring from New Zealander Michael Braithewaite, after the event director, producer and musician who led the Tattoo's recovery from a three-year pandemic enforced hiatus. The first non-military figure to oversee the Tattoo programme, his tenure saw new special effects light up the facade of the castle and the esplanade, a new 'electropipes' sequence set to dance music, and the use of more pop and rock music in the show, along with themes from films and video games. The Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo is celebrating its 75th anniversary this year. (Image: Jane Barlow/PA) Mr Lane, who landed the Tattoo job after 24 years in charge of the Leeds-based theatre company Slung Low, has previously been involved in large-scale outdoor events in Hull, Leeds and Liverpool. He can trace his involvement in the arts industry back to the Tattoo, the first ever live show he attended as a child, which he was taken to by his father, who was in the Royal Air Force. Mr Lane had planned to join the Army himself but was forced to shelved his military career after being diagnosed with cancer when he was just 22, but became an Army Reservist 10 years ago and is a troop commander with the 75th Royal Engineers. Highland dancers are performing in the 75th anniversary edition of the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo (Image: Jane Barlow/PA Wire) He said: 'I wanted this job because I really love the Tattoo. I'm a mad fan and I think it's the most exciting show in Britain. There is a real responsibility to not mess it up. 'There's nothing like this event anywhere else. We have more than 900 per performers and 9000 people in the audience. If you like Scottish traditional music, military music and bagpipes there is nowhere better in the world to hear it. Performers march off Edinburgh Castle esplanade during the finale of this year's Tattoo. (Image: Jane Barlow/PA Wire) 'The first thing I did was look at the things our audiences expect – the things people know us for and love us for. I had to make sure the show delivers for people who know what they want from the Tattoo. I took that really seriously. 'But I also think it is the job of artists to give audiences something that they don't know to ask for. The Ukraine Naval Forces Orchestra is appearing in this year's Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo. (Image: Jane Barlow/PA Wire) "If we only do the first, the Tattoo becomes a museum piece, and no-one wants that. If we only do the second, it becomes a vanity project. "We can celebrate the past of the Tattoo and imagine the future. But doing them both authentically, without them being gimmicky, is really important.' The full cast of the Tattoo are only together for four days of rehearsals before the first audience arrives at the esplanade for the show's preview night. However planning for the show and its content gets underway well over a year in advance. He said: 'The first thing I did when I arrived was asked for a castle to be made. We've got a model and we move toy soldiers around the esplanade. 'In my previous job I would nearly always start with a blank canvas. I could do whatever I wanted as long as it came in on budget and opened on time. 'The Tattoo is a different proposition and is infinitely more challenging. We have so many stakeholders and they all have to have a sense of ownership of the show. 'We've looked at all the classic bits of the Tattoo, and how we can reimagine and reconfigure them, and look at them in a contemporary light. The show has to celebrate the past and also imagine our future. He said around 80 per cent of this year's show would feel familiar to the many ticket-buyers who regularly return to the event. He added: 'There is a bucket list audience for the Tattoo. For some people, coming to Edinburgh will be a once-in-a-lifetime thing. "We know that a large chunk of our audience are coming to Edinburgh because the Tattoo is on. They will have seen it on TV and it is their dream to come to Edinburgh for the show. 'But there are other people who come to the Tattoo every year because it is their most favourite thing in the world. 'We've had a lot of fun working out what is a sacred cow and what isn't a sacred cow. We have a list of things on a wall in our offices of things that we can't mess with. 'We might only evolve 20 per cent of the show. But if you change 20 per cent of any show it you profoundly change it." Mr Lane has previously worked with Buckingham Place, the Royal Shakespeare Company, the Barbican arts centre in London, the Lowry arts centre in Manchester, the National Theatre of Croatia and Singapore Arts Festival. Perhaps the biggest change this year is the return of a narrator for the event for the first time since the last pre-pandemic event in 2019. The dropping of a commentary was one of the most controversial aspects of Mr Braithwaite's tenure. The roaming role is being played by Glasgow-born actor Terence Rae, star of the recent Rebus TV series and the new Outlander prequel series Blood of My Blood. Mr Lane said: 'The Tattoo has always been made up of military music and precision, traditional arts from Scotland and international guests. That's staying the same. 'But we will have a theatricality in the show that we've maybe not had before and storytelling that our audience has demanded. 'Michael was a musician. He understands the world through music. I understand the world through words and stories. 'The Tattoo does a number of things for our audience which are incredibly emotionally powerful. "It was really important to me to frame the emotion in the show and why we are doing things. I think our audiences enjoy clarity and want to know why something is in the show. "We have a live storyteller on the esplanade for the first time this year. Terence Rae is an absolutely brilliant actor. There aren't any huge speeches, but he explains what is coming up and why. He is joining the dots." A recent innovation at the Tattoo being taken forward by Mr Lane is a showcase for modern-day Scottish traditional music anthems in the show's finale, which has featured tracks by Runrig, Tide Lines and Skerryvore in recent years. This year's show features versions of the Karine Polwart song Travel These Ways and the Skipinnish track Eagle's Wing. Mr Lane added: 'One of the great things I have inherited from Michael is a love of the contemporary Scottish traditional scene. 'It's a movement that has real energy at the moment and I'd find it really hard to imagine a show that doesn't incorporate that energy at scale." For festival tickets see here
