Mr Colin Hartley, Head of Events for Glasgow Life, promoters of the World Pipe Band Championships, has written to all bands asking them not to practice near residential areas on the periphery of the city’s parks and also to confine their practice hours to within a 9am – 8pm time slot.
Mr Hartley’s letter reads: ‘The event organisers request that bands who wish to practise in Glasgow’s parks are mindful of noise disturbance and disruption to local residents.
‘Where bands wish to practise in a park, they should move to the centre and refrain from practising around the periphery of parks where these are adjacent to residential areas (minimum recommendation 100m away from residential properties).
‘Practise in any of Glasgow’s parks should not take place before 9am in the morning and bands should conclude practise by 8pm in the evening.
‘Bands should ensure that the park management rules are adhered to at all times while in the parks. Please find details of parks and open spaces across the city as well as the park management rules here:.
‘We thank you in advance for your co-operation.’
Mr Hartley’s letter:
More than 200 bands will compete at the Worlds this Friday and Saturday. 50+ are from overseas and in dry weather many make use of Glasgow’s extensive parkland for their rehearsals. Popular spots are Kelvingrove Park in the city’s west end and Glasgow Green itself.
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A rather interesting intervention by Glasgow City Council, and rather ironic that during the recent TRNSMT festival at Glasgow Green, we could hear the boom and thump from at our home in Paisley, dome 7 miles away. Doubtless it was much louder for those living much closer.
A similar, but smaller, event in Rouken Glen park two weekends ago, could also be heard here!(although that would be East Renfrewshire Council’s area)
I attended to listen to a band practice in Kelvingrove Park a couple of weeks ago. It concluded well before 9pm and attracted a sizeable crowd of spectators, many of whom were clearly tourists. The band received applause on concluding from appreciative visitors.
On leaving, one of the summer session concerts from the Kelvingrove bandstand could be loudly heard!
There seems a lack of consistency in this matter.
This immediately reminds me of an Australian chap who is a good piper and visited Old Gaul. He went to a Glasgow shop and purchased a pipe chanter reed and was anxious to try it. He found a deserted large car park in the Ibrox area of Glasgow and went to an area away from habitation. Thankfully the reed purchase was successful and the Aussie would play some tunes. In the distance he saw a young lad approaching and eventually the youngster arrived and our Aussie piper stopped playing to acknowledge his small audience. ‘Hello mate’ says our piping Aussie cousin, whereupon the the little guy says ‘Bye the way big man, my dad says if you don’t stop that racket, he will come and shove those things up your…’
There may be a lesson to this,—- to avoid the Ibrox area. But I do hope the overseas pipers do find the Scotties welcoming!