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In celebration of its 75th anniversary, The Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo delivered its debut performance in Auckland on Thursday night.
I was invited along to the Friday performance by an old friend of mine from the South Island, who was taking part in this huge spectacle through her role in the New Zealand Army. The Friday night show also gave those New Zealand Defence Force personnel a chance to see the bulk of the show they played a part in. It was a pretty amazing feeling watching The Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo in the midst of friends and family of those personnel who, mere minutes before, had been marching on the pitch at Eden Park.
If you have any drop of Scottish blood, it certainly surges at the sound of the first strains of the bagpipes, and the hum in your veins never recedes until well after the audience spills from the stands.
Seen annually by over 230,000 live attendees in Scotland and broadcast to 100 million viewers worldwide, the military tattoo brought together more than 1,000 performers in a fusion of music, precision, pageantry, and pride. The whole evening showcases performers from a range of countries, from the United States of America to Japan, Norway, Switzerland, Australia, and Tonga, just to name a few.
Thirty bands and acts took to the stage, including fan-favourite Top Secret Drum Corps (well worth tracking down some videos of past performances) and performers from the New Zealand Defence Force and Ngā Tūmanako Te Matatini. The latter is a kapa haka group and the reigning champions of the Te Matatini National Kapa Haka Festival.
It’s not often the public gets to see a full tri-service musical performance from the New Zealand Defence Force, so the combined effort of the Royal New Zealand Navy Band, New Zealand Army Band, and Royal New Zealand Air Force Band was a real treat.
One of the smaller groups of performers drew one of the loudest roars on Friday night – His Majesty’s Armed Forces of Tonga Royal Corps of Musicians. Audience participation was high as they added their much-loved Pacific flair to the evening.
One of the highlights came with the arrival of the Top Secret Drum Corps, who are known for their incredible displays of skill, creativity, and precision. Founded in 1991 in Basel, Switzerland, the corps became famous for its demanding six-minute routine performed at the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo in 2003. With its invitation to Edinburgh, Top Secret became one of the first non-military, non-British Commonwealth acts to perform on the Esplanade at Edinburgh Castle.
And it’s not hard to figure out why. Top Secret is incredibly precise, with their drumming sounding very similar to gunfire. Their act featured plenty of pizazz, from the quick and light-footed marching, playing on each other’s drums, and shooting fireworks from the Swiss flag.
My one negative point is that the giant screen was underutilised. While the staging and digital backgrounds were impressive, some smaller performances were lost on the large field and would have benefited from being featured on the screen. The Highland dancers were fantastic, but again would have been a showstopper if beamed to the entire crowd via the screen. Those in the higher seats did benefit from a bird’s-eye view, and the judicious use of some drone footage would have amped up the experience.
The finale was well designed, with a blast of fireworks and a lone piper perched on the top of the stadium. It left most with a wish to see more, so I hope The Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo will soon return to our shores, adding a few more New Zealand stops to their itinerary.
