The Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo, long seen as a traditional and even old-fashioned fixture of the festival, has been reinvented this year under creative director Alan Lane, an experimental theatre-maker known for large-scale community productions. Despite rarely featuring in festival buzz, the Tattoo remains the city's most popular event, and its new creative direction – bringing unexpected elements such as tap-dancing cowgirls into its traditional mix of marching bands and pipers – marks a notable shift in how the event presents itself.

This year's show, titled A Call to Gather, is inspired by the Scottish National War Memorial's tribute to American volunteers in the first world war, and features actor Richard Rankin's narration alongside drummers, pipers and lighting effects at Edinburgh Castle. Last year the Tattoo drew 230,000 spectators and raised £1.5m for charity, with performers such as the New Zealand army band's Staff Sgt Ross Yorkstone (in his sixth year) saying nothing else compares in scale. Lane himself embodies a striking contrast: a Sandhurst-trained Royal Engineers reservist who is also a lifelong Labour party member and founder of Slung Low, the Leeds theatre company behind ambitious works like Flood and Camelot: The Shining City.