Edinburgh Military Tattoo to leave mark on Wellington

Edinburgh Military Tattoo to leave mark on Wellington

A long-standing Scottish tradition has made its way to Wellington, complete with its own castle and 1300 performers.

The Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo will perform in the city's Westpac Stadium from tonight until Sunday as part of the New Zealand Festival.

It's packed out the city, with reports those searching for accommodation have had to look as far as Levin.

The event is estimated to bring $16 million into the local economy.

Chief executive and producer of the Tattoo, Brigadier David Allfrey, says bringing the show to New Zealand marks the fourth time the show has been taken overseas and with the amount of equipment needed it is not hard to see why.

The group normally plays in front of a "modest" crowd of 8,500 outside Edinburgh Castle each year  which is broadcast worldwide by the BBC.

"[Westpac] is a proper, full on stadium. We've had to build a castle. The castle took 400 years to build, this one took 4 days.

"There's a lot of technical challenges in playing this."

This included taking into account the sound which bounces around the stadium "in a deeply challenging way".

The show, which includes 1300 performers, has 960 microphones changes during the two-hour long show.

"A microphone comes off a fiddle and goes onto a bassoon, it comes off a bassoon and onto a drum  that's massively challenging," he says.

Brigadier Allfrey says the Tattoo is a celebration of military and civil culture.

"It was started by the Lord Provost in the late 40s in Edinburgh to inspire and entertain the people of Edinburgh after the privations of the second world war and that's what we're still doing today -- inspiring and entertaining. "

The performances include the traditional Celtic massed pipes and drums, military bands, Highland dancers as well as cultural and military performers from around the world including New Zealand.

Newshub.