Today had been a dark, cold and wet day in the city. As I walked back to my car late at night, I could hear, somewhere, in the distance, the wail of a piper and the deep roll of bass drums echoing within the Castle walls, the sound seeming to linger long after they had…
The Castle of Good Hope opened its doors to several energetic youth groups, who performed together with the military bands – SA Army Band Cape Town, SA Air Force Band, SA Navy Band and SAMHS Band – and two of the pipe bands that have been performing during the Cape Town Military Tattoo – the Cape Field Artillery Pipes & Drums and the SAMHS Pipes & Drums.
The spectators who arrived for the dress rehearsal of the Cape Town Military Tattoo 2013 at the Castle of Good Hope were treated to an absolutely brilliant show. Any problems that had manifested in the run-throughs of the previous two evenings seemed to have been ironed out, and I was blown away by the quality of the performances.
And this was despite the fact that it – thankfully intermittently – drizzled and spat, poured and bucketed with rain, throughout the evening.
Tonight was the second run-through of the entire show, and the levels of excitement – and stress – behind the scenes were running high. The previous night, I had run out of energy, after a long hot day on my feet, and so I had missed the second half of the show. Tonight, I was determined to stay until the end.
After all the bands had had an opportunity to go through their routines in the front arena during the day, it was time for all the different acts to be assembled together into a well-structured programme, with one act flowing nicely into the next.
When the early morning mist curled around the buildings and streetlights of Cape Town, creating a slightly eerie atmosphere, it gave no indication that it would become such a hot Monday. By mid-morning, the heat of the sun had burned off the mist, and a brilliantly blue sky was bringing out the ochre-yellow hues in the walls of the Castle of Good Hope. By midday, everyone was looking for shady spots to shelter from the harsh sun, and glancing hopefully towards the western skyline, where just the hint of a cold front was starting to appear.
