Musicians from around the world have arrived in Scotland for an annual piping competition and festival.
The Piping Live! Glasgow International Piping Festival was opened by the US Fountain Trust Pipe Band who travelled over 3,600 miles from Ohio to take part as they celebrate their 20th anniversary.
The festival and World Pipe Band Championships will see more than 8,000 musicians and more than 200 bands – from countries including New Zealand, Australia, Canada and South Africa – perform in Glasgow.
After a performance by Fountain Trust Pipe Band on Buchanan Street they joined the Piping Live! Big Band – a 120-strong group of pipers and drummers – who marched from Blythswood Square to the City Chambers in aid of the Scottish Association for Mental Health (SAMH).
Organisers expect crowds of over 40,000 to attend piping events from August 13 to 19.
Director Roddy McLeod said: “Piping Live! is one of the biggest events in Scotland’s cultural calendar and we’re thrilled to be celebrating our 15th year with such a stellar line-up, including the Fountain Trust Pipe Band, who are joining us for the first time.
“We’ve got a fun filled week of entertainment and activities for everyone, with headline performances from trad heavyweights and first-time performers to the fiercely contested Masters Solo Piping Competition and our come and try sessions at The National Piping Centre.
“We’ve also added new events to our programme this year, such as the Ceòl nam Pìobairean, a celebration of the music of the highlands at Drygate.”
Fountain Trust Pipe Major Campbell White said the band were delighted to open the events.
“It’s our first time in Scotland and to be here to participate in an event of this calibre is a huge honour,” he said.
“It’s definitely worth travelling across the world for – I’m sure it’ll be a festival to remember.”
Glasgow Lord Provost Eva Bolander said: “Glasgow comes alive to the sound of the bagpipes when Piping Live gets underway bringing top class musicians to the city to perform.
“It is a chance to experience unique and spellbinding music that will build memories that last a lifetime. Many of the people performing are under 25 and this event, along with the World Pipe Band Championships, cements Glasgow’s reputation as the World’s capital of piping.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here