Tattoo Announce Sell-out Season Before A Note Has Been Struck On The Castle Esplanade

Organisers have this afternoon announced that next month's Queen's Golden Jubilee Edinburgh Tattoo (2-24 August) has smashed all previous records with 100% of all the available seats snapped up before the show opens this Friday.

217,275 tickets for the 3-week extravaganza on the Castle Esplanade have now been seized upon generating some £3.2 million in Box Office receipts, marking the 53rd Tattoo as the most successful ever.

"Given that the last three year's had broken all previous records it certainly appeared to be quite a challenge just to repeat the exercise," said Tattoo Chief Executive and Producer, Brigadier Melville Jameson.

"But to do so", he continued, "and prior to the beginning of the run is indeed a remarkable achievement for my small Tattoo team."

"The hard work of everyone involved has ensured this extraordinary accomplishment. My heartfelt congratulations to them all," he said.

"We are once again extremely grateful to all our sponsors, who have been so generous this year, in particular main sponsor The Royal Bank of Scotland, Norwich Union, Standard Life, Ford and Dewars World of Whisky." concluded the Producer.

Head of Sponsorship at The Royal Bank of Scotland, Jim Bellany said, "We are absolutely delighted that the Tattoo has had this unprecedented success in selling out so quickly this year".

The 'sold-out' signs were hoisted at 400pm this afternoon though some re-sale tickets may be available for performances until the end of the run on August 24th.

Next year's Military Tattoo~ runs from August 1-23 and mail/fax/email bookings will be accepted from 10.00am on Monday 2nd December 2002.