Worlds Build Up and History of the Great Championship

Piping Press continues its unparalleled build up to Friday and Saturday’s World Pipe Band Championships with a comprehensive history of the competition. Read the start of it below. These articles and all our news are brought to you free of charge thanks to the support given to the Piping Press Shop and our advertisers. Please help us keep it that way: no spin, no subscription. We learn today that tickets for the Grade 1 arena at the Worlds has been sold out so it will be standing room only for those without the appropriate briefs. There are plenty of tickets for general admission.Unfortunately the weather is not looking good with showers, perhaps heavy at times, forecast. Never mind it will still be a great day…..Here is the start of our History of the Worlds written by former RSPBA adjudicator Alistair Aitken OBE:

This coming Friday and Saturday will see the annual World Pipe Band Championships at the end of a week of wide-ranging piping, pipe band and traditional music events in Glasgow as part of the Piping Live Festival.  The Championships are organised jointly by the Royal Scottish Pipe Band Association (RSPBA), Glasgow Life and the City of Glasgow Council; and they are the pinnacle and most prestigious competition of the RSPBA’s five annual major pipe band championships.  This year will be the 70^th anniversary of the first time the Championships were held in Glasgow.  Since then Glasgow has been the venue on 34 occasions.

In advance of the big event many readers of Piping Press worldwide may find it interesting to have some information about the history surrounding the World Pipe Band Championships (WPBC) and how they have evolved over the years.  The long history in fact stretches as far back as 1906, although at that time the WPBC were not organised by the RSPBA, which did not exist until 1930 when it was established as the Scottish Pipe Band Association (SPBA).  The first pipe band competition regarded as the World Pipe Band Championships was actually introduced in 1906 as part of the Cowal Highland Gathering in Dunoon, Argyll.  It was not until 1947 that the competition became the responsibility of the SPBA, later to become the RSPBA…..read the full article here.

This year’s Worlds will feature 8,000+ pipers and drummers from 214 bands and 13 countries. Here’s the breakdown by grade and country courtesy the RSPBA:

If you don’t already know how to get there here is the map guide from promoters Glasgow Life:

• Stay tuned to PP for more on the Worlds as the week progresses.

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