The SPA’s annual competition for young pipers aged 18 and under was held under video submission rules for the first time. Main sponsors were MacCallum Bagpipes. The contest attracted a large entry with the results announced this weekend with a very high standard of piping particularly in the U-18 category. The winners were: 18 & Under Piobaireachd1 Cameron May, Lament for Donald Duaghal MacKay2 Hazel Whyte, Battle of Auldearn No…

To give everyone some focus we publish the list of pipe band major championships we hope will be fulfilled during the 2021 summer season. Now that a covid vaccination programme has started in the UK, will there could be a return to normal in just over five months time? However, we should not assume a smooth resumption of pipe band contests as we know them, at least in the early…

Fingers crossed, the vaccine, being administered here in the UK from Monday, will have arrived in time to save the summer piping season. The Oxford shots are not far behind adding to the millions of doses flooding in. However it will take a few months until they reach a level of application that satisfies the politicians that they can give up their grandstanding and release us all from house arrest….

In these testing times a little bit of normal is all any of us want. Recently, in Dunedin, Florida, that’s just what happened. The Dunedin Celtic Music & Craft Beer Festival was held on November 21st at the city’s Highlander Park. Presented by the Dunedin Scottish Arts Foundation, this is an annual event centred around traditional and contemporary celtic music and both local and national craft beer and wine makers…

Last Sunday evening the Piobaireachd Society held a concert of ceòl mòr. It was broadcast live from the National Piping Centre in Glasgow and attracted a worldwide audience. The recital featured four pipers, Sandy Cameron, Angus MacColl, Cameron Macdougall and Iain Speirs playing eight tunes, MacDougall’s Gathering, Struan Robertson’s Salute, the Unjust Incarceration, Corryvreckan Lullaby, MacKenzie of Applecross’s Salute, Lament for Donald of Laggan, End of the High Bridge and…