The Edinburgh Military Tattoo.
Although it is officially a completely seperate event, the Tattoo is very much a part of the whole Festival experience. It is an unfailing sign that the annual influx of mild insanity is just around the corner, when one sees the skeleton of the grandstands beginning to appear on the Castle esplanade.
While I realise that this is the 20th. century and the romanticised kilt and bagpipe view of Scottish culture is hopelessly outdated, to anybody who admits to a trace of Scots ancestry, there can hardly be a more stirring sight and sound than that of the massed Pipes and Drums of the Highland regiments marching and countermarching in front of the floodlit backdrop of the castle whilst playing the old favourite tunes.
