Projects

The Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo is the largest music festival held in Scotland. Since 1950, the event has been held every year on the Esplanade in front of Edinburgh Castle. Each year, around 217,000 visitors make their way to the capital of Scotland to see and enjoy this military music parade. NUSSLI has been tasked by the general contractor Sir Robert McAlpine Ltd with the planning, delivery, and construction of the seating arrangements for 8,700 spectators for the August 2011 and 2012 events. The job for The Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo furthermore includes the installation of numerous modular structures for toilets, machine rooms, artist’s dressing rooms, and the hospitality area.

The two-year planning time was followed by a 2.5 months construction phase on site. The 8,700 seats, including a modular, two-storey VIP and technology building with accessible roof terrace plus the functional buildings, were constructed with a total of around 1,000 tons of steel. NUSSLI also installed a fully automated visitor’s elevator, and was responsible for the implementation of the visitor guidance system. A 15 man NUSSLI team was in charge of erecting this highly unusual temporary structure.

Construction logistics had to deal with space restrictions inside and outside the walls of the ancient castle. Monuments, and the sloping terrain along the sides of the structure, posed additional problems. Logistics were also forced to work around the huge numbers of tourists and visitors, frequenting the famous castle each day.

In the interest of sustainability, and not to be in the way of the many visitors of Edinburgh Castle, NUSSLI will remove the temporary event structures at the end of each event.

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