Visit Scotland | Alba
Article published 20/05/2024

Glasgow is set to host Scotland’s biggest week of bagpipes this summer:

  • Piping Live! Saturday 10 to Sunday 18 August
  • World Pipe Band Championships Friday 16 and Saturday 17 August

In this article:

Piping Live!

The world’s biggest piping festival, Piping Live! attracts over 30,000 attendees to Glasgow each year. It features an eclectic programme of events for pipers and music lovers alike to be held at venues across the city.

The festival is run by the National Piping Centre and now in its 21st year, and will include:

  • lively concerts
  • captivating recitals
  • hard-fought competitions
  • engaging workshops
  • energetic sessions

It has 700 musicians on its musical menu across nine days This include a swathe of free and ticketed events.

 

Band performing at Piping Live! 2023

Band performing at Piping Live! 2023

Festival programme

  • Kick off - 12 August

    The spectacular sonic week will get formally underway with the iconic Piping Live! Big Band.

    This event welcomes pipers and drummers of all ages and abilities to join the festival’s mass participation event. It will fill the city centre streets with music as they march from Mansfield Park in Partick to Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum.

    That evening, Sauchiehall Street venue Nice N Sleazy will host Ceol Nua. This is Piping Live!’s progressive avant garde piping night. It will showcase boundary pushing performances in the heart of the city and featuring The Sólàs Collective and Bede Patterson.

  • Free shows - 12-15 August

    Buchanan Street will be awash with the sound of pipes with free, open air performances by pipe bands from across the globe taking place each day.

    This will include sets from:

    • Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo Pipes and Drums
    • City of Angels Pipe Band from Los Angeles
    • Old Scotch Pipes and Drums from Australia

    These performances offer a fantastic chance to experience world-class piping in the bustling heart of the city centre.

    In Glasgow’s West End, the iconic Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum will host a recital in its breathtaking centre hall. Each recital is performed by an amazing international artist each day of the festival at 2pm. This will showcase bag-piping traditions from around the world.

  • Competitions 13-14 August

    • International Quartet Competition, 13 August, Royal Concert Hall Glasgow

    Sponsored by R.T Shepherd and Son, this will see top pipe bands send four of their best pipers to compete for the esteemed title.

    • International Piping with the Eagle Pipers Society, 13 August, Scots Guards Club Edinburgh
    • Gordon Duncan Memorial Piping Competition, 14 August, National Piping Centre Auditorium Glasgow

    Supported by the Gordon Duncan Memorial Trust, this prestigious event sees four pipers compete. Playing Scottish, Irish and Breton music, they'll partake in celebration of the life of piping legend Gordon Duncan.

    • Pipe Major Alasdair Gillies Memorial Recital Challenge, 15 August, Royal Concert Hall Glasgow

    This event will see a recital of the favourite tunes of five top pipers: Callum Beaumont, Alex Gandy, Matt MacIsaac, Angus MacColl, and 2023 champion Stuart Liddell.

  • Final weekend 16-18 August

    Iconic folk fusion band Croft No. Five will get the weekend started in spectacular style on Friday 16 August. They perform a specially created set with celebrated piper Ailis Sutherland.

    John Mulhearn’s The Pipe Factory will open the night with a performance that will explore the sonic possibilities of the pipes.

    This unique night of entertainment will take place at Saint Luke’s, a new venue for the festival this year.

    The popular Street Cafe returns for 2024. It will run from midday each day at the National Piping Centre on McPhater Street. It will showcase an array of:

    • emerging talent
    • international styles of bagpipes
    • live podcasts
    • pipe band practices and showcases

World Pipe Band Championships

The World Pipe Band Championships is a major event which Glasgow first hosted in 1948 and the city has staged every year since 1986. It attracts thousands of pipers and drummers from all over the world to compete in the ultimate battle of the bands.

It is organised on behalf of the Royal Scottish Pipe Band Association by Glasgow Life. This is the charity that delivers culture and sport in Glasgow.

Social media sensation Ally Crowley-Duncan will be flying in to take part in Piping Live! She is known online as Piper Ally and has a combined following of over 4 million for her innovative piping content. She is originally from New York.

Ally will be performing and hosting a Q&A as part of the Street Cafe and taking part in the Piping Live! Big Band. She will also be acting as a secret judge in competitions across the week.

 

Pipers and drums at the World Pipe Band Championships

Pipers and drums at the World Pipe Band Championships

Being part of Piping Live! is like standing on the grandest stage of bagpipe mastery.

It's where the world's finest gather to showcase their talents and where every note carries the weight of centuries of tradition.

To be invited back to this world-renowned festival is an amazing moment for me in my musical journey and I can’t wait to share the experiences I have with all of my followers.

Even though my career in bagpiping largely exists outside of the traditional, I'm immensely grateful for the opportunity to stay connected to the community, and immerse myself once again in the atmosphere of Piping Live! and I am really looking forward to being back in the beautiful country of Scotland and reconnecting with old friends, having first taken part with the Scotia Glenville Pipe Band (now the Capital District Youth Pipe Band) in 2012.

Ally Crowley-Duncan (Piper Ally)

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