AAHS shares an inexplicable link to the military. Every day, many of our fellow students feel the impact of family overseas, and every year, the struggle of moving to a new home. Over the weekend of September 26th, a crowd of roughly 3,500 gathered in the Colorado Springs World Arena to watch the inaugural Colorado International Tattoo, commemorating those who have risked their lives for our country.

Produced by Joe Poch, the Tattoo aimed at incorporating deep Celtic roots into the city’s strong military presence to produce a show to honor the military. He and his staff reached out locally to the Air Force Academy Band, and even further to branches such as Army and Navy. “We wanted the show to honor military, but still be fun and musical and connect to the Celtic roots,” says Erin Newsome, Poch’s intern and our very own Kadet.

The staff brought in various elements – both traditional and modern – in order to pull together a Tattoo that would touch all aspects of their visions for the production. Both brass and bagpipe bands from the Pikes Peak region played in the show, often collaborating on pieces directed and produced by Joe Poch himself.  The Pikes Peak Highlanders and Queen City Pipes and Drums were joined by the local Irish dance troupe, Celtic Steps, to add that Celtic twist to the show. The dancers performed a National-winning routine telling the story of “Unsinkable” Molly Brown, a first-class passenger on the Titanic that refused lifeboats in order to save the poor souls treading the icy waters.

One of the other prominent goals of the Tattoo was to integrate a strong vocal performance. To do so, the Colorado Springs Chorale joined forces with Chloe Agnew (formerly of Celtic Woman), resulting in a stunning final performance of Amazing Grace in respect of those soldiers who have fallen.

Finding the acts was only the first step of the process, however. Between the bands, drill team, dancers, and singers, it took thousands of emails between the staff and cast and 18 months of work to produce the first annual show. On top of it all, the staff was small, resulting in long, strenuous hours of work for all the members involved.

“We spent weeks working on promotion and finding sponsors,” says Erin, who worked loyally on the project over summer. “I personally spent weeks running posters around town and called endless phone numbers trying to find sponsors and advertisers. We met with at least five different groups a week to get the show in order and constantly had to be in contact with the World Arena to make sure the show would run smoothly.” Poch and his staff attended multiple military functions to spread the word. “It was difficult to get people to understand that a Tattoo isn’t a body art convention,” she adds.

As a member of the Celtic Steps dancers that performed, I got a glimpse behind the scenes of the preparation of the show. We visited the stadium on Thursday with a small amount of our team in order to scout out the stage, and got to experience the energy poured into setting up the lights and acoustics of the arena, managed by Poch who composed the finale music arrangements and designed the lighting renders himself.

On the night of the 26th, the entire cast performed a full dress rehearsal in a near-empty stadium for PBS, then returned the following night for the actual show in front of 3,500 people. Crowds gathered out front before the doors opened to see previews of what was to come from bands, the local Native American community, Celtic Steps, as well as highland dancers. At 7, within the imposing stadium, the cast paid a unforgettable tribute to all of those in this world who have risked their lives to save someone else’s. We are forever in your debt.