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.[6]
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.[2]
2015: The festival celebrated the 70th anniversary of the end of the Second World War.[7]
2017: The tattoo celebrated the 10th anniversary of the founding of the festival.[11][12] 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.[13]
2020: The theme for the 2020 festival was "75 years - the end of the war", in honor of the diamond jubilee of the defeat of Nazi Germany.[21] It was expected that the festival for this year be one that tells about the history of the military music in Russia.[22] The bands of the anti-Hitler coalition were also invited to the festival.[23] Due to the COVID-19, foreign bands were not able to participate in the festival, and later, it was announced that the festival was cancelled altogether, marking the first time since its establishment that the public event on Red Square had been cancelled.[24][25] Instead of the normal program, it was announced that an online festival would take place on 6 September on the Cathedral Square of the Main Cathedral of the Russian Armed Forces, with over 12 musical units from the armed forces and other organizations performing, including a few first time participants.[26] Virtual greetings were given by the Royal Thai Navy Band, the French Air Force Southwest Band, the Zürich City Police Band, and the PLA Band.[27][28]
The Bands in the Parks is a program sponsored by Directorate of the Spasskaya Tower International Military Music Festival and is carried out from May to August in support of the Ministry of Defense of Russia and the Government of Moscow.[31] The first of these performances took place at VDNKh in 2016 and was greeted with a standing ovation by Muscovites and guests of the capital. In the anniversary year a year later, the program of performances was expanded. The number of concerts and city venues involved in the project has increased.[32]
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