The World Pipe Band Championships is heading out on tour for the first time this year as part of Scotland’s Homecoming celebrations, paying a visit to some of the summer’s top events.
The Homecoming Scotland Road to the Worlds will see various pipe bands appearing at events across the UK in the build up to the championships - the world’s biggest pipe band competition - which return to Glasgow Green this August.
On May 30 the ScottishPower Pipe Band will play to football supporters at a sold-out Hampden Park, when Falkirk and Rangers contest the Homecoming Scottish Cup Final.
On August 7 and 8 former world champions the 78th Fraser Highlanders will be appearing in Stornoway to headline Tattoo Hebrides. The programme of activity then rolls out over the summer months at various high profile events and locations across Cardiff, Manchester and Belfast.
Ian Embelton, chief executive of the Royal Scottish Pipe Band Association, who organise the Worlds, said: “Glasgow is at the very centre of global piping in August and thousands of pipers and fans make the pilgrimage to Scotland every year to take part.
“This year with Homecoming Scotland Road To The Worlds we are taking the pipes to the fans and we hope to attract some new ones back to Glasgow along the way.”
The tour kicked off last weekend at Murrayfield Magic, when tens of thousands of rugby league supporters from the north of England descended upon Edinburgh to watch a full card of Super League fixtures.
Fans were welcomed to the capital by the Newtongrange Pipe Band who piped along the route from Haymarket into the Stadium while each rugby team was piped into the stadium by the Stockbridge Pipe Band.
Marie Christie, director of Homecoming Scotland, said: “The year of Homecoming aims to reconnect Scotland with the many millions of people around the world who have an ancestral link or a love for our county by inviting them back to visit Scotland in 2009.
“There is no doubt Scotland’s rich piping heritage and tradition has had a significant global influence and it is appropriate this is recognised and celebrated in the Homecoming year.”
The World Pipe Band Championships take place at Glasgow Green on Sunday August 15 with around 250 bands and 8000 pipers from across the globe competing in front of an audience of more than 50,000.
