World Pipe Band Championships

JohnW

Silver Member
Tomorrow, I leave with our band, the Stuart Highlanders to go to Glasgow to compete the following week in the World Pipe Band Championships. 250 bands from all over the World will be there. It will take place on Friday and Saturday August 15th & 16th and streaming live on the following link as soon as it's up:

http://www.theworlds.co.uk/ontheday/Pages/Watch-The-Worlds-2013.aspx

We have two bands in our outfit; Grade 1 and 4A. Grade 1 is the top grade and they will go through a qualifier on Friday, the 15th. All of the finalists and qualifiers from the other grades will compete on Saturday. I'm in the Grade 4A band. Nothing to sneeze at; the level of playing in all grades has increased dramatically over the last few years.

http://www.theworlds.co.uk/Pages/home.aspx
 
Good luck! Half of my band just left to head off to Glasgow as well! A few compete in the LA Scots, and the other few in 78th Frasiers. I wish you all the best of luck out there!
 
Thanks, willc87! We have friends in the 78ths. If you want to PM me their names I'll drop by and say hello.
 
Ticket prices are proper but does that include airfare? Or hopefully you guys will bring back some quality video.
Was just watching part of 2013 video and that is too cool. I love that sound...
 
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I'm not sure how the ticketing works for competitors. At least when it comes to watching the Grade 1 bands. Because of the number of bands, I think it would be a logistical nightmare to let them watch the Grade 1's in the stands after they finish their own competitions.

From what I've heard, the best place to watch is the tuning area before they compete.

Airfare is not included, nor lodging or bus fare from the university where we're staying. We have over 60 members headed over and all the funding came from parades, concert money, raffles, out of pocket money for flights and some friendly donations!

I'll try to take some good footage.
 
The top grade qualifiers start tomorrow morning on the links I first posted with the finals starting early Saturday. I'll try to post footage of us and some other bands tomorrow.
 
Back from Scotland. Here's our Grade 1 band's medley performance this past Friday (scroll down to see the Stuart Highlanders):

http://new.livestream.com/accounts/3661274/events/3252880

Unfortunately, neither of our bands made it through the qualifiers. My 4A band (again, Stuart Highlanders) needed a 6th out of 16 bands in our heat. We got 9th (including a 3rd in ensemble) but it was not enough to get through. Here is our breakdown (at the bottom half of the page):

http://www.rspba.org/results/displa...4&Contest=World Championships&Grade=4A Qual 2

We were obviously disappointed with the results at the World's, but had a great experience overall. The people there could not have been nicer. There were two smaller contests in Scotland the week before (North Berwick & Perth) and both bands placed in both contests. We got a 3rd and a 2nd, while our Grade 1s got a 4th and a 1st!

If you're inclined to, you can find the breakdowns of all the contests in Scotland this year on this page of the Royal Scottish Pipe Band Association (RSPBA) website:

http://www.rspba.org/results/listcontests.php?Year=2014

My video camera was misplaced, so when I get it next week, I'll post some videos of us playing as well as some other bands.
 

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