Tall Ships Race 2025 brings the ‘tourist event of the year’ to Aberdeen

The Tall Ships Race 2025 stops in Scotland! Between 19th and 22 July, the city of Aberdeen welcomes almost 50 tall ships and hundreds of thousands of attendees for a truly epic waterfront party.

The Tall Ships Race 2025 fleet will soon set its sights on the shores of Aberdeen.

Between the 19th and 22nd of July, the Scottish city will welcome race participants and public alike for a maritime extravaganza.

4 different classes of competing vessels, from large sailing ships to smaller single-masted boats, will stop in after their North Sea crossing to attend the four-day festival. They’ll continue the race towards Kristiansand, Norway after the weekend’s celebrations.

Tall Ships Race 2025: A party to remember

The streets of Aberdeen will come alive for the occasion, with street food, market stalls, bars, and live music aplenty.

Best of all, entrance is free!

Emma Wadee, Aberdeen City Council’s Tall Ships Project Manager, says she hopes the Tall Ships Race 2025 will “help turn the Granite City into Party City from morning to night.”

Attendees can expect a true festival of sound at the Quayside concerts with sold-out headline shows from Deacon Blue, Kaiser Chiefs, and countless other musical guests. With a mix of genres including Scottish trad, Afrobeat, jazz, hip hop, Latin soul, and contributions from youth ensembles and local choirs, the lineup is sure to have something for everyone.

Families can make their way to the family zone at Blaikie’s Quay, where they’ll find entertainment tailored to the little ones. Kids can dig into a giant sandpit and take photographs with Dorry the Dolphin, the adorable Tall Ships Aberdeen mascot. There’s even a ‘Family Stage’ with kid-friendly performances, workshops, and storytellers, as well as an “underwater” circus featuring ground-based Partner Acrobatics.

And for the Grand Finale, on Monday 21 July a Red Arrows display will animate the Scottish skies.

Celebrating maritime community

This truly epic waterfront party promises to be an exciting, enriching experience for all.

Through a combination of fun, festive, and educational events, the City of Aberdeen is embracing the Tall Ships Race 2025 as an opportunity to celebrate the area’s maritime heritage. Programming contributions from local entities such as the Aberdeen RNLI Lifeboat Station, the University of Aberdeen, the Aberdeenshire Archives, the Macduff Marine Aquarium, and Aberdeen Art Gallery, will help develop understanding of the city’s relationship to the North Sea.

Together, the Tall Ships Race 2025 and its Host Ports (La Havre, Dunkirk, Aberdeen, Kristiansand, and Esbjerg) are hoping these festivals can help foster international connections within the sailing community and get more young people into sailing.

You can bet we’re always onboard with that!

---

Enjoyed reading this?

A subscription to Yachting Monthly magazine costs around 40% less than the cover price, so you can save money compared to buying single issues.

Print and digital editions are available through Magazines Direct – where you can also find the latest deals.

YM is packed with information to help you get the most from your time on the water.

• • • Take your seamanship to the next level with tips, advice and skills from our experts
    • Impartial in-depth reviews of the latest yachts and equipment
    • Cruising guides to help you reach those dream destinations

Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Note: We may earn a commission when you buy through links on our site, at no extra cost to you. This doesn’t affect our editorial independence.

---

The post Tall Ships Race 2025 brings the ‘tourist event of the year’ to Aberdeen appeared first on Yachting Monthly.