Ten Years After ‘Homecoming Scotland’ is it Time to Make that Trip You’ve Always Promised Yourself?

It may have been a financial failure, but 2009’s ‘Homecoming Scotland’ project brought a focus to all the things that are good about the country, certainly from a piping point of view. Ten years on they are just as relevant and brought to mind an encounter I had on a cruise holiday just before HS kicked off, writes the Editor….. Reg was in full flow. ‘I’ve been all over the…

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Piping Inverness Returns in 2020 – Tickets Now on Sale

The promoters of next summer’s European Pipe Band Championships in Inverness have sent this release. The local City of Inverness band are pictured above at the 2019 March Past… Hundreds of pipe bands and thousands of pipers, drum majors and Highland dancers will be heading to Inverness again in June for Piping Inverness 2020, incorporating the European Pipe Band Championships. Tickets for the event go on sale at 9am today…

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Florida Pipe & Drum Academy 2020 – Here Comes the Sun!

The 2020 Academy will take place once more in Jacksonville, Florida, promoted by the local fire department pipe band. The outline for the week is as follows: Fly in Mon 24 February: Meet & greet 7pm; auditions; sort pipes; early finish. Classes proper start 9am Tuesday: break 10.30; lunch 12 noon; classes 1 – 2pm; break/ practice/ piobaireachd class 3pm/ band practice 4pm. The school follows this pattern most days…

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CITES Latest on African Blackwood Exports/ London Championship Livestream Request

All bagpipemakers and those dealing in instruments abroad will be interested in this latest news from the UK authorities regarding CITES permits for African Blackwood. David Naill & Co Ltd, one of the UK’s leading bagpipe manufacturers, has received the following: I refer you to the attached EU document entitled ‘IMPLEMENTATION IN THE EU OF THE AMENDMENTS MADE TO THE CITES APPENDICES AT CoP18.’ To summarise it as far as…

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