Cape Town Military Tattoo
3-6 November 2010
The Castle of Good Hope recently hosted the
Cape
Town Military Tattoo. The event has proven to be popular with the public.
The 2009 Cape Town Military Tattoo was held from 19-21 November and was
enjoyed by the whole family.
The next Cape Town Military Tattoo is scheduled
for 3-6 November 2010 at the Castle of Good Hope. A proposed
programme is available on their official website www.capetattoo.co.za
(publications).
The Defense Reserves Western Cape has
also compiled a programme of activities to market the Cape Town Military
Tattoo during the FIFA World Cup from 11 June to 11 July 2010 at the
Castle of Good Hope (click
here for programme).
Tickets will be available at Computicket
as from October 2010.
Background
to the Cape Town Military Tattoo
Like
its predecessors, the tattoo has been devised and produced by a dedicated team
of Regular and Reserve members of the SANDF, working out of the Defence Reserves
Provincial Office in Cape Town, and is supported by the Cape Town City Council.
The
series started with seasons in 2003 and 2004, but for various reasons was not
staged again till 2007. But now it is well under way again, and is scheduled to
take place again in 2010.
The
Defence Reserves Western Cape has one eye focused on its immediate tasks, but the other
trained firmly on the future: an infinite series of annual military tattoos that
will eventually turn Cape Town into the Edinburgh of Africa, with visitors
arriving from all over South Africa and the world to see some military show
business unlike anything to be found anywhere else.
What is a military tattoo?
It
is best to begin by describing what a military tattoo is not. It is not a fete,
open-air concert or pageant. It is military show business of international
professional standard, consisting of a series of short (averaging about nine
minutes), fast-moving acts of which some are musical and others
non-musical.
The term “tattoo”
originates from the long series of wars which were fought in the
Low Countries
in the 16th and 17th Centuries, and in
which armies of many nations participated on one side or the other. It became
the custom in garrison towns to send out patrols each evening to recall off-duty
soldiers for the evening parade. This was done by visiting each tavern and
calling out to the inn-keepers: “Doe den tap toe”. In other words, “close
the taps on your beer-barrels.”
It
is thought that this is why the hour of
6pm
is still called “Retreat” in the South African and other
Commonwealth armies, because this was when soldiers would reluctantly
“retreat” to their barracks for the evening roll-call.
In
subsequent years this mundane ritual gradually developed into its present form:
“Tattoo” in English, “Taptoe” in Dutch, Flemish and Afrikaans, and
“Zapfenstreich” in German, to name some of the variations on its name.
The
evening “taptoe” is an ancient part of
Cape
Town
’s
history as well. Late every afternoon a drummer would mount the Castle’s
Leerdam bastion and spend half an hour beating retreat as a signal for the
garrison’s soldiers to return to barracks.
