Pipers march through Glasgow streets for Piping Live! 2023 Big Band.
Pipers met at Mansefield Park in Partick, before heading along Dumbarton Road, onto Argyle Street and finishing on the concourse outside the iconic Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum.
The Piping Live! Big Band will return for its sixth showcase at this year’s Piping Live! festival, welcoming pipers and drummers of all ages and abilities to take part in the mass participation event.
Around 130 pipers will gather, ranging from young learners playing their chanters to seasoned professionals with years of piping experience, to walk the streets of Glasgow’s west end and perform a rousing repertoire of tunes.
Since its inception in 2016, the Piping Live! Big Band has worked in partnership with a chosen charity and this year the festival is working with Versus Arthritis. Everyone registered to be part of the Big Band makes a donation.
The spectacle is a flagship event in the Piping Live! festival programme. The world’s biggest bagpiping festival returns for its 20th edition this year, running from 12th - 20th August, in venues and on streets across the city. Visit pipinglive.co.uk.
Pipers met at Mansefield Park in Partick, before heading along Dumbarton Road, onto Argyle Street and finishing on the concourse outside the iconic Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum.
The Piping Live! Big Band will return for its sixth showcase at this year’s Piping Live! festival, welcoming pipers and drummers of all ages and abilities to take part in the mass participation event.
Around 130 pipers will gather, ranging from young learners playing their chanters to seasoned professionals with years of piping experience, to walk the streets of Glasgow’s west end and perform a rousing repertoire of tunes.
Since its inception in 2016, the Piping Live! Big Band has worked in partnership with a chosen charity and this year the festival is working with Versus Arthritis. Everyone registered to be part of the Big Band makes a donation.
The spectacle is a flagship event in the Piping Live! festival programme. The world’s biggest bagpiping festival returns for its 20th edition this year, running from 12th - 20th August, in venues and on streets across the city. Visit pipinglive.co.uk.
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NewsTranscript
00:00 [no audio]
00:04 [music]
00:08 (bagpipes playing "Four Seasons")
00:12 (bagpipes playing "Four Seasons")
00:16 (bagpipes playing "Four Seasons")
00:20 (bagpipes playing "Four Seasons")
00:49 - Thank you for being here.
00:50 It sounds great and it's all for a good cause, remember.
00:53 So, thank you very much on behalf of Piping Live.
00:56 - It's great to welcome the big band to Kelvin Grove.
00:59 What's not to love?
01:00 - I'm Jacqueline McLaren, I'm the Lord Provost of Glasgow
01:03 and we're here because this is the start
01:04 of Piping Live week, culminating in the World's Bands,
01:08 World Piping Band Championship, which is on Saturday,
01:11 starting on Friday and Saturday,
01:12 and I'm the chieftain on Saturday.
01:14 Well, it's massive, they come from all over the world.
01:16 The bands come from all across the globe
01:19 to descend in Glasgow for those two days.
01:21 - What's the atmosphere like?
01:22 - Incredible.
01:23 You should get down there and buy a ticket and come.
01:25 - My name's Finlay MacDonald, I'm Artistic Director
01:28 of Piping Live, the Glasgow International Piping Festival,
01:32 and we've just finished the big band parade this year
01:35 in support of Versus Arthritis.
01:38 So, we're here at the wonderful Kelvin Grove Art Gallery.
01:42 We've had 130 people take part in the parade today
01:45 and it's a beautiful way to start the festival.
01:48 The sound of the pipes going through the streets of Glasgow,
01:50 there's nothing better.
01:51 Piping Live is on now until next Sunday.
01:55 So, Piping Live is on from the 12th to the 20th of August,
01:59 right here in Glasgow, various venues around the city,
02:02 but we're based at the National Piping Centre
02:03 at the top of Hope Street.
02:05 We've got a whole programme of events every day
02:06 from 11 o'clock at the National Piping Centre,
02:09 different venues around the city,
02:11 the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, a couple other venues.
02:14 So, there's something for everyone all week,
02:16 and if you check out our website, www.pipinglive.co.uk,
02:21 you've got all the programme information there.
02:23 For the festival, although piping's absolutely
02:25 at the heart of it, it's become a much broader festival
02:28 in terms of the kind of wider traditional music scene
02:31 and the international traditional music scene.
02:33 So, we've got some great artists,
02:35 and we always have had artists
02:36 from lots of different countries.
02:38 This year, we've got pipers from Estonia, from England,
02:42 Spain, North America, Canada, Japan.
02:45 So, it really is a celebration of piping of all forms,
02:48 but it's a music festival at the end of the day.
02:50 We're here to celebrate and support music of all kinds.
02:53 It's our 20th year.
02:55 It's hard to imagine that this is the 20th Piping Live.
02:59 It's a real privilege, actually, for me to get
03:02 to help programme this festival
03:04 and bring artists in from all over the world.
03:06 So, I mentioned before Caitlin Magie,
03:08 who's a brilliant Estonian piper,
03:11 bringing her show to Glasgow tonight,
03:13 the Monday evening concert.
03:15 Glasgow Green, Friday and Saturday next week
03:17 is the World Pipe Band Championships.
03:19 So, that's the big one for pipe bands.
03:21 There's several majors throughout the year,
03:24 but this is the one, the World Pipe Band Championships
03:28 happening on Friday and Saturday.
03:30 (audience applauding)
03:33 (audience cheering)
03:36 [BLANK_AUDIO]