Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo donates £750,000 to military and arts charities
Howard Lake | 7 February 2025 | News
The annual charitable donation from the 2024 Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo totals £750,000. The sum is being donated to arts and military charities.
This is the largest donation given since 2019 and follows a successful Show in 2024. It demonstrates the Tattoo’s longstanding commitment to supporting the armed forces and their families, and continuing its support of traditional arts in Scotland.
In addition the Tattoo has committed to donating an additional 75p per ticket sold in 2025 to St Columba’s Hospice Charity, as chosen by a public vote.
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The Tattoo has donated over £13 million to Services and Arts organisations since 1950 from The Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo (Charities) Limited – its charitable parent company.
Military charities that are to benefit this year include The Royal Navy and Royal Marines Charity, the Army Benevolent Fund and The RAF Benevolent Fund. In Scotland the Tattoo also funds valuable work from the Army in Scotland Trust.
Funding for Scottish arts initiatives will benefit organisations including Scottish Schools Pipes and Drums Trust and Edinburgh International Festival.
In addition to this financial contribution, The Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo also remains committed to the preservation and promotion of traditional arts in Scotland through its own Tattoo Traditional Arts Programme (TTAP). This aims to nurture and develop talent in traditional Scottish music, dance, and performance, ensuring that cultural traditions continue to thrive for future generations.
The TTAP offers workshops, masterclasses, and performance opportunities across traditional art-forms.
75th anniversary show
This year The Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo is celebrating its 75th anniversary with a show entitled ‘The Heroes Who Made Us’.
Jason Barrett, Chief Executive, The Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo said:
“We are privileged to be able to support these remarkable charities and initiatives. Between 2016 and 2019 we were fortunate enough to be in a position to donate a total of £1 million to these charities annually.
“The pandemic curbed this level of giving but we are delighted to see the figure rise again. We are on track to see a return to our pre-pandemic figure of £1 million annually in 2025 – a testament to our ongoing dedication to those who have given so much for their country”.
Funded charities
The full list of charities and projects that will be supported by The Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo are as follows:
- 51 Infantry Brigade Welfare Fund
- Allied Forces Foundation
- Army Benevolent Fund
- Army in Scotland Trust
- Army Piping and Drumming Committee
- Edinburgh Garrison Welfare Fund
- Edinburgh International Festival
- National Piping Centre
- Scottish National War Memorial
- Scottish Schools Pipes and Drums Trust
- The Royal Air Force Benevolent Fund
- The Royal Navy and Royal Marines Charity
Tickets for The Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo’s 75th anniversary Show are now on sale. The Show will run from 1-23 August 2025.
About The Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo
- The Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo first performed in 1950.
- The Tattoo is performed to a live audience of 230,000 annually on the Esplanade of Edinburgh Castle with a further global TV audience of +100 million. Performers from over 50 countries have taken part.
- In 2010, the event was renamed The Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo after Her Majesty The Queen bestowed the Royal title in honour of its 60th birthday.
- HRH The Princess Royal, Princess Anne, is the Patron of The Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo.
- As part of the Edinburgh Festivals, The Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo helps contribute £407m economic impact to Edinburgh, and £313m to Scotland (2022).
- The Tattoo has performed overseas on five occasions, most recently Australia in October 2019.
- Edinburgh Tattoo 2019 to donate £1 million to UK military charities (5 October 2019)
- 2018 Edinburgh Culture Fund to benefit 10 arts organisations (23 January 2018)
- Fundraising Camp came to Edinburgh (2 March 2016)
About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.