How the Edinburgh Tattoo has become a global platform for UK soft power

Yet the Qatari presence is not simply creative programming. It’s a sign of how the Tattoo is taking on fresh significance as a platform for UK soft power, combining military and cultural engagement with a distinctly Scottish flavour at a time of rapidly evolving geopolitics.

The Qatari band – founded in 1950, the same year as the Tattoo – will be joined by The German Army Band Koblenz, the New Zealand Army Band and the United States Army Field Band in a 90-minute performance for nearly 9,000 people nightly that will run until August 29.

These bands come from nations with long-standing military ties, now being used through the Tattoo to foster closer bonds as like-minded nations close ranks amid unprecedented security threats. They also project pride in military service to civilians through music and cultural display.

The big driver is a changed geopolitical backdrop: UK defence spending is high on the agenda of the new chancellor and former defence secretary John Healey.

Less obvious is how, amid the least predictable security environment since the Cold War, the UK government is also focusing on defence as a tool of soft power in alliance-building.

In its latest Global Perceptions survey, the British Council defines soft power as “the ability to influence through attraction rather than coercion”, adding that this is “a strategic imperative” in a world “defined by competition, fragmentation, and flux”.

Earlier this year, the Ministry of Defence published its first ever “Defence Diplomacy Strategy”. This commits the UK to being “more deliberate, targeted and coherent in deepening its international relationships with allies and partners”, as Lord Coaker, the MoD minister of state, put it. Leveraging “ceremonial excellence” was one element.

In January 2025, Labour launched a “UK Soft Power Council” made up of experts from across sport, creative industries and geopolitics. It has survived the change of government, and remains in contact with the Tattoo as part of outreach to Scotland’s summer festivals.

Not much of this is context that the Tattoo’s founders would have had in mind when they created the event, a month-long jamboree of massed pipes and drums, Highland dancers and performers.

But it is front and centre for chief executive Jason Barrett, since he took over three years ago. “We’ve been looking more and more at what the Tattoo is strategically in light of the importance of soft power and soft diplomacy, and then putting more of this into intent, design and strategy as a business,” he tells me. “This is not your grandfather’s Tattoo.”

Barrett says he visits London once every three months to meet with the MoD, parliamentarians and the assistant chiefs of the armed services to discuss the Tattoo’s role in this new era.

“All of this is designed to align, harmonise, and agree on their objectives in terms of soft power and soft diplomacy. We want to assist with that if it is in consonance with our business and creative and artistic designs,” he explains.

Barrett comes with qualifications for the mission. The 58-year-old American is a US Marine Corps veteran who also served in the Royal Marines, with tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan. He has been with the Tattoo for six years, three as CEO and three as chief operating officer, after a Tattoo board member persuaded him to apply for the role in 2020. Barrett moved to Scotland from Colorado, where he had been running a hospitality business.

One example of the Tattoo’s convening role came last year when the Ukrainian military sent its musical band to Edinburgh to perform, marking the first time it had left the country since 2018. The Tattoo has also advised Saudi Arabia and Qatar on setting up their own versions of the event.

It’s all part of the Tattoo’s strategy to internationalise, the most visible sign of which came in February this year when the 2025 Edinburgh show was taken to Brisbane. The show has taken place in Australia occasionally since 2005, and performers have also appeared at Tartan Week in New York.

But Barrett says work is underway to “make the Tattoo repeatable” as part of a strategy to diversify income streams, which in turn should allow it to increase charitable donations – its ultimate purpose.

The Tattoo made an operating profit of £4 million on turnover of £24.7m in 2025, allowing it to donate £1.5m to charities, chiefly The Royal Navy and Royal Marines Charity, The Army Benevolent Fund and the Royal Air Force Benevolent Fund.

Diversification would see a large Tattoo show happen once every three years in Australia, and cheaper, scaled-down versions staged in North American sports arenas. A third element, being worked on by creative director and Royal Engineer Reservist Alan Lane, could see a stage version, perhaps inspired by Ireland’s highly successful “Riverdance”.

Meantime, the show’s run this year will host senior officers and ambassadors from 12 NATO countries, including the US, Estonia, Turkey and France.

Underlining the increasing importance of the defence industry, Babcock – which is manufacturing Type 31 frigates for the Royal Navy at Rosyth – has joined the Tattoo’s corporate sponsors for the first time this year.

“The Tattoo has always had convening power. Some have called it one of the best defence engagement platforms there is,” says Barrett. “In a world that can sometimes feel increasingly divided, there has never been a greater need for occasions like the Tattoo that bring people together.”