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Aberdeen, Scotland

The Tall Ships Races Aberdeen

The largest free public event in Europe in 2025

Client:

Aberdeen City Council

Tall Ships Races is a world renowned international sailing event bringing together some of the largest and most historic sailing vessels in the world through a programme of maritime activity, public events and cultural celebrations.

Hosted in Aberdeen in 2025, the event transformed the city waterfront and the Port of Aberdeen into a large scale public event destination, combining ship arrivals, crew activities, youth sail training programmes and city wide cultural programming. As one of four host ports within the international series, Aberdeen welcomed vessels, crews and visitors from across the world throughout the event period.

Alongside the maritime programme, the event featured extensive public entertainment, hospitality and live music activity across the city, including a sold out Quayside Concert series at Peterson Seabase with performances from artists including Deacon Blue, Kaiser Chiefs and Ministry of Sound Classical.

The event attracted more than 400,000 visitors and became the largest free public event in Europe in 2025, combining international maritime heritage with large scale live entertainment, tourism and public engagement across the city environment.

Number of attendees

400,000+

at

The Tall Ships Races Aberdeen

Services
provided

SP man days total
0

Overlay & Site Management

  • Infrastructure scheduling and procurement
  • On-site supplier & logistics management
  • Budget variance management

Construction Management

  • Sourcing structures, planning & executing builds

Site Design

  • All CAD work and event infrastructure layouts
  • CAD Drawings
  • Budget & efficiency tracking
  • Site feasibility studies

our role

Special Projects acted as the operational lead for overlay, site and infrastructure management on behalf of Aberdeen City Council across the Tall Ships Races event footprint within the Port of Aberdeen.

Our role included developing site layouts, coordinating infrastructure installation and managing operational delivery across public event areas, berth integration zones and concert infrastructure throughout the site. Working within a live commercial port environment, we coordinated infrastructure planning and operational activity to support both public event operations and ongoing maritime activity throughout the event period.

Special Projects worked closely with Aberdeen City Council, the Port of Aberdeen, Sail Training International and wider operational stakeholders to coordinate logistics, supplier activity and site operations across all phases of delivery. This included supporting infrastructure scheduling, supplier coordination, public access planning and operational integration across the wider waterfront environment.

Our role also included maintaining flexible operational planning in response to changing berth allocations, vessel schedules and live operational requirements throughout delivery. Through continuous coordination and stakeholder communication, Special Projects supported the delivery of a large scale public event environment integrated within one of the UK’s busiest working ports.

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The Tall Ships Races Aberdeen

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