The Spasskaya Tower International Military Music Festival is an annual military music event and military tattoo held in Moscow on Red Square. Participating in the festival are Russian and foreign military bands, folk groups, and honor guard units of foreign countries. More than 40 countries have taken part in the festival since 2006. It is named after the world-famous Spasskaya Tower of the Moscow Kremlin. Its TV partner is TV Centre. The festival's motto is "To Revive Traditions and Preserve History". In 2020, the directorate of the festival became a full-fledged member of the Asian Marching Band Confederation (AMBC). Timeline The following is a timeline of the festival's history: 2007: It took place on Poklonnaya Hill and celebrated the Moscow City Day. The event was seen by more than 50,000 people. 2008: The event was referred to as the International Military Music Festival "The Kremlin Zorya". The Foreign and Commonwealth Office banned British Army bagpipers from travelling to event in protest of the 2008 Russo-Georgian War. The move was criticized by Brigadier Melville Jameson of the Edinburgh Military Tattoo and Vitaly Mironov of the Kremlin Zorya Foundation, with both accusing Foreign Secretary David Miliband of "playing politics" in a cultural event. 2014: 1,500 military musicians and honor guards from 10 countries took part in the festival. The theme of the festival marked the First World War centenary. 2015: The festival celebrated the 70th anniversary of the end of the Second World War. 2016: Attended by over a 1,000 musicians. Participating teams included those from Austria, Greece, the European Union, Italy, Mongolia, Singapore, Slovenia, Kazakhstan, Japan, Israel, Belarus, and Scotland. The tattoo began with a minute of silence for the 291 victims of the August 2016 Central Italy earthquake. 2017: The tattoo celebrated the 10th anniversary of the founding of the festival. It also honoured Lieutenant General Valery Khalilov, the musical director of the festival who died along with the entire Alexandrov Ensemble in the 2016 Russian Defence Ministry Tupolev Tu-154 crash. Over a thousand musicians from 40 young bands of the Central Federal District took part in the festival as part of a larger Children's Combined Band. Distinguished guests of honor included Belarusian Defence Minister Andrey Ravkov and his spouse, Chief Conductor in the Abkhazian Defence Ministry David Terzyan and Director of Bands for the Egyptian Armed Forces Major General Helmi Ahmed Suliman Khatab. 2018: The tattoo was attended by