The Castle of Good Hope was positively buzzing with activity today. The sense of excitement was palpable.
Gearhouse (a well-known technical supplier to the live event industry) had arrived early in the morning, and off-loaded all the various components of the seating stands. A forklift and a hand-drawn cart were taking turns to ferry the materials through the main gate of the Castle into the grass-covered arena. Yesterday, the boundaries and corners of the seating stands had been marked out on the lawns. Today it was a case of assembling all the scaffolding and floor boards, and creating the four blocks of stands.
They also constructed a framework at the back – this will be for the ‘curtain’ to hide the rear arena from view, so that the participants for the various acts can assemble there to await their turn to march on.
Maintenance guys cordoned off the Kat archway to give the inside of the archway, particularly the ceiling, a thorough clean spray and to remove bits of flaking paint.
The guys from 3 Electrical Workshop in Wonderboom were constructing the lighting towers on either side, and mounting the lights on the tracks above the Kat.
In the midst of all this activity, dozens of tourists and school groups were wandering all over the place, the Castle Guard performed the key ceremony and the diminutive signal cannon – don’t let its size fool you into thinking that it’ll just be a puff of smoke! – made us all leap out of our skins.
The carriage drawn by one of the gorgeous white percheron horses rolled across the arena a couple of times, the big white horse remaining surprisingly calm in the midst of all the organised chaos. The resident Egyptian geese – the tiny fluffy goslings of a few months ago having grown remarkably! – were similarly unfazed. But then they too have been behind the scenes at the Tattoo for a number of years!
Enjoy the pics!
Grains of Sand 
Its like a beehive amazing to show us al this activity
It’s really exciting, Bobz. Wish you were here. 🙂
Great pictures Reggie, you can feel the anticipation building up!
Thank you, Joy! Yes, there is definitely an increasing sense of anticipation and excitement. Tomorrow is the first full day of rehearsals for all the bands at the Castle – we’re hoping that the weather is going to hold, because heavy rain is forecast for tomorrow. Mind you, if it *does* have to rain at this time, it just please mustn’t rain during the performances!