Crieff Highland Games Cancelled

As Jerry Seinfeld would say, "That's a shame!"

The shame here is unfortunate news presented yesterday via Rob Wallace's growing piping/drumming website, http://pipingpress.com/. See the article here: http://pipingpress.com/2015/03/04/crieff-highland-games-abandons-piping-contests/

A brisk, mostly cloudy day at the Crieff Games last summer.

It seems as though the Crieff Highland Games, located near Perth, Scotland, has decided to cancel solo piping and band competitions moving forward! This is a terrible thing to hear for any solo piper, especially if you live in or travel to Scotland in the summer to play at the "games." This is especially awful on a personal level because this past summer, I was there and competed! In fact, there were 16 solo competitors, and a few who didn't play because they were told that no field entries were allowed.

The Crieff games committee is blaming the World's. "As you will be aware the number of both participants & spectators at Crieff Games piping competitions has dwindled over the past few years. We believe that this is down to the World Pipe Band Championship now taking place over two days on the same weekend." Again, there were 16 competitors!

While that may not seem like a lot compared to some of the bigger events over in Scotland, it's certainly a healthy number for one of the smaller games on the circuit. Personally, I think the games committee wants to save money by cutting events that offer little to no monetary profit. Even though several of the international competitors were there because the World's being the same weekend, it still isn't enough to push on and continue to offer a platform for solo pipers and bands to perform. We can only hope that this trend doesn't continue and if it does, only the bigger piping events will survive. Solo pipers won't have the chance to go to the small local games the week before the big one to get the cobwebs off, so-to-speak. There has to be another way, there just has to be!! Right?

Maybe with enough public outcry they'll add the piping for August 2015. I know I'd like to go again if I get the chance!