This year’s event will be held on Friday 16 and Saturday 17 August at Glasgow Green. The city hosted the renowned championships for the first time in 1948 and has staged every edition since 1986.
The prestigious international contest, which is the pinnacle of competitive piping, brings together thousands of pipers and drummers from all over the world for the ultimate ‘battle of the bands’.
More than 35,000 attendees gathered on Glasgow Green last year to watch the finest bands in the world compete, and the spectacular finale which culminated in Peoples Ford Boghall and Bathgate Caledonia Pipe Band winning the World Champions title for the first time, bringing the crown home to Scotland.
With an increased number of bands competing in the 2024 World Pipe Band Championships, the contest is set to be even more fiercely contested this year.
1. Piping Live!
Piping Live! is underway, the city’s annual countdown to the World Pipe Band Championships. Running from 10-18 August, the festival’s 21st edition when Glasgow provides a stage for visiting band members, folk groups and individual performers. | Piping Live
2. Piping Live!
Contemporary and folk-informed piping concerts, reflecting Glasgow’s thriving “fusion” scene, include Ceol Nua at Nice’N’Sleazy on the 12th, with the Sòlás Collective, an adventurous trio led by piper Fionnlagh Mac A’ Phiocair, featuring smallpipes, Gaelic song, viola, dancing and electronics. They’re joined by another cutting-edge outfit, the Nexus Project, fronted by Australian piper Bede Patterson with saxophonist Dean Garrity and pianist Ewan Johnston. | Glasgow Life
3. World Pipe Band Championships
Representing 13 countries from as far afield as Australia, Hong Kong, and Oman, 204 bands will take part. Spectators from near and far can look forward to superb entertainment, stirring sounds and colourful sights, with the championships concluding with the traditional march past of all the bands and a unique performance as they play together, prior to the announcement of the contest’s category winners and finally, the 2024 World Champions. | Piping Live
4. World Pipe Band Championships
The biggest contingent is from Scotland (119 bands), followed by Northern Ireland (25 bands), USA (18 bands), and Canada (10 bands). This will be the first year that a band from Hong Kong is taking part in the contest. Well over 7,000 pipers and drummers will assemble on Glasgow Green – all resplendent in their band uniforms of kilts in a variety of vibrant tartans, worn with sporrans and Glengarry bonnets | SNS