Anne meets Ukrainian band at Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo rehearsal
Anne viewed a Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo rehearsal (Jane Barlow/PA)
As well as military bands from the UK's armed forces, this year's show will feature performers from the US, Poland and Switzerland.
This year will see members of the Centre for Military Music of the Ukrainian Navy make their debut.
The Odessa-based orchestra are engaged in rehabilitation projects as well as a number of cultural programmes.
This year will also be the first time Adam Lane has stepped in as the Tattoo's creative director.
A theatre director by trade, he is also a reservist with the Royal Engineers.
Members of the US Air Force Honor Guard rehearsed their role in front of Anne (Jane Barlow/PA)
The theme for this year – the 75th for the Tattoo – will be 'the heroes who made us' – with each night of the show's run celebrating a significant figure.
Mr Lane told the PA news agency: 'The team here are fantastic, they've been making shows for decades, so I'm very confident they're a great team and they'll do a great job.'
He added: 'International acts have always been an important component of the show and this year's no different.
'I'm absolutely delighted to welcome our brothers and sisters from Ukraine.
'Like all international acts, they've come to represent the best of their nation.
'We have some extraordinary Ukrainian military music and some Ukrainian cultural dancing as well so I think the audience are going to really enjoy that.'
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Ms Niven, a former head of literature at the Scottish Government arts agency Creative Scotland, has previously worked on festivals and events in Melbourne and Beijing, was a founder and director of the Edinburgh poetry and spoken word festival Push The Boat Out, and led the programming of special events to mark the centenary of the birth of the Edinburgh-born author Muriel Spark. She said: 'I don't think I've ever run a festival programme where somebody has not complained that they should have been in there. 'We are pitched literary thousands of books every year. We cannot cover every single subject. We wouldn't intend to. We also miss things. 'With subjects that are particularly challenging or divisive, I think we need to make sure we're exploring them from the perspective of books that allow you to have a good, robust conversation that is not about the personal, but is about the bigger picture issue. We don't always have those books in front of us. 'This year we're doing a huge amount of stuff on geopolitics, we have a lot of challenging stuff around Israel-[[Palestine]] and we have a brilliant programme looking at politics in America. 'I don't think it's possible to tackle every topic with the care and diligence that it requires. 'I think we have to make sure the conversations that we do have help to move the conversation forward, bring something new to the table or frame the conversation in a way so that people are listening and learning. That is difficult to do. That doesn't mean we are going to shy away from difficult topics. 'They are really important, but they're not the full picture of what we do. We have so much amazing fiction, poetry, music and song in the programme. A lot of the book festival is about joy, imagination and offering a bit of respite from everything that is going on. 'It's really important to look at all the joyful, interesting and more frivolous stuff that we're doing, because that is more representative of the publishing industry and the arts at the moment.' Mr Sturgeon, who has made regularly appearances at the book festival in recent years, will be launching her eagerly-awaited memoir, Frankly, on August 14. Asked about the criticism of the former First Minister's appearance in the programme, Ms Niven said: 'In what world would the country's largest leading book festival not publish a memoir by the former First Minister Scotland. I would absolutely stand by programming Nicola Sturgeon. 'It is worth saying we are really pleased that Kirsty Wark is doing the interview. It will be quite a journalistic interview. I wouldn't expect her to shy away from difficult questions. I think it will be a robust discussion.' Ms Niven suggested that the festival wanted to offer an alternative to media reporting on divisive issues, which she said tended to focus on the 'extreme end' of a debate. She added: 'A lot of the time, what we are trying to do, which I think is in line with what a lot of the public and readers want to see, is have a more nuanced conversation where we share some ground, rather than the very divisive end of whichever issue it is. 'What is the conversation, what is the commonality, what is the common ground that we can agree on? We might challenge ourselves. We might learn something new. 'There was a bit of a fashion around 10 years ago or so for festivals of 'dangerous ideas.' I think we've moved on from that. 'I don't think that's the most productive way to have conversations at the moment in the landscape that we are all in. It doesn't always have to be so polarised.' Ms Niven admitted the run-up to this year's festival had been 'pretty challenging.' However she added: 'I think this year's programme is great. People who are participating in the festival this year are bringing everything to it, as they always do. That kind of motivates you. 'Our ticket sales are good. We are in slightly better shape at this point than we had predicted. "People are still booking for events a lot later than they used to in the past. "But in terms of ticketing income and numbers of tickets sold, we are up on where we were at this time last year, which is really great to see. 'We have been inundated with pitches from publishers and writers who want to be at the festival. It is still one of the biggest events of its kind in the world. 'We are privileged to have that support from writers and publishers. It feels very galvanising. So many people are invested in making this thing a huge success.'
