It feels like the dust's barely settled on the 2008 Festival, but the first tickets for next year are about to go on sale.  Seats for the 2009 Edinburgh Military Tattoo - the umatched soldierly spectacle which wows crowds of 8,500 nightly in front of Edinburgh Castle - will be on sale online from Monday 1 December.  And with recent Tattoo seasons booking out by mid-January, there's no time to waste securing your place.

Edinburgh's Hogmanay organizers have opened up their seasonal ticket booth, adding a city-centre outlet to their existing online and phone booking options.  The cabin in Princes Street Gardens, handy for the Christmas festivities, can sell tickets for the full range of Hogmanay events (together with, inevitably, a shed-load of Hogmanay merchandise).