Brigadier David Allfrey has just finished a meeting with representatives from The Household Division – the seven British Army Regiments serving Her Majesty The Queen – about its potential involvement in next year’s Edinburgh Military Tattoo, of which he has been the chief executive and producer since 2011.
“The huge figure in the tweed suit was the Garrison Sergeant Major, London District – a god amongst men,” said Allfrey, as he ushered me into his cramped office on Market Street in Edinburgh, overlooking Waverley Station. Allfrey had been busy ‘selling’ them their part in the tattoo, the theme of which, Tunes of Glory, has been in the planning for two years.
“It will be about 10% of the Tattoo, but it’s the core. This is all about ‘tunes of glory’; Trooping the Colour, for example. We’re going to try and recreate a piece of state ceremonial on a scale where people will just go: ‘Wow’. But there are months of advocacy involved [in getting approval].”
But Allfrey is just as keen to talk about the recently launched national events strategy, Scotland – The Perfect Stage.
As events and festivals champion for the Scottish Tourism Alliance, he is, for the moment, the closest we have to a spokesperson for the industry, a sector so diverse it encompasses the organisers of a village fair and T in the Park, suppliers to the Turner Prize Award dinner in December and the Guinness PRO12 rugby final next year.
Why not then, for the moment, a former army officer with more than 30 years service under his belt?
It certainly makes for an interesting hour, during which Allfrey reflects on the difference between life in the forces (“I’m used to orders from high command”) and as a civilian (“Persuading the sector to look to Scotland – The Perfect Stage for guidance is a hell of an ask for many commercial people”).
But he is relaxed enough to declare that he is proud of the strategy, at the same time as inviting EventsBase to find a critic: “You should have someone saying it is utter bollocks”. His point was; it is important to generate debate and perhaps spark ideas that the strategy had not considered. “Get people engaged,” he said.
Allfrey is hoping for a “golden thread” of enlightened self-interest that will connect the organisers of the smallest event with highest echelons of policymaking; both – and all those in between – appreciating the contribution that each brings to their success, locally and nationally.
He name-checks “the brilliant” Stuart Turner, head of EventScotland, who he said had managed to synthesise the myriad views garnered from the industry over the previous 18 months. Allfrey sees his job now as encouraging the sector to work together, not out-of-step or, worse, in competition.
“When someone visits Scotland, we should hand them on each step of the way, from the airport to the city, to the hotel, from an event to a book shop or fish and chip shop and then: ‘Have you thought about a trip to…’.”
And, after citing various locations around Scotland, Allfrey can’t help a military analogy: “Rather like the Comet Line in the last war, where downed airmen were fed, clothed and given false papers, before being hidden in the attic. And then a network of people guided them through France to the Pyrenees and on to Gibraltar.”
