The world’s biggest piping festival annually attracts over 30,000 people to Glasgow and this year the organisers hope to see more visitors than ever as Piping Live! celebrates two decades as a cornerstone of the Scottish cultural calendar.

Hugely talented multi-instrumentalist duo Ross Ainslie and Ali Hutton are joined by pipers Ailis Sutherland and Anna Smart and Artistic Director of Piping Live! Finlay MacDonald outside the National Piping Centre in Glasgow to celebrate the launch of Piping Live! 2023.

Piping Live! returns to Glasgow in 2023 with a nine-day festival, from Saturday 12th - Sunday 20th August. The annual festival will showcase a world-class programme of events.

Held in and around The National Piping Centre, Piping Live! includes the World Pipe Band Championships, a much-anticipated highlight of the global piping scene, organised on behalf of The Royal Scottish Pipe Band Association by local charity Glasgow Life.

The National Piping Centre is home to an internationally acclaimed teaching school that supports pipers at the beginning of their piping journey and it is a destination in itself with a hidden gem 40-seat restaurant The Pipers’ Tryst, a bespoke 8-bedroom hotel, a Bagpipe Shop, the Museum of Piping and a Library of Piping Archives.

Finlay MacDonald, Artistic Director for Piping Live!, said: “We are delighted to be launching the 20th edition of Piping Live! It's incredible to think back on how much the festival has grown in the last 20 years. I'm extremely proud to be involved in the direction of what is now a major cultural and musical event for Scotland, and the global piping and traditional music scene.

“Piping is more popular than ever, there are more people from diverse backgrounds playing, the music is both steeped in tradition as well as forward-looking and innovative. This rise in popularity is in no small part down to the continued support from our audiences and the dedication of the teams behind Piping Live! and the World Pipe Band Championships. There's a real energy in the piping and drumming scene in anticipation of Piping Live! this year. Glasgow is certainly going to be alive with music, friendship and camaraderie.” 

As well as the World Pipe Band Championships, highlights of Piping Live! 2023 will include:

• The Pipe Major Alasdair Gillies Memorial Recital Challenge, Piping Live!’s flagship evening of solo piping, will be showcased at the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall’s Strathclyde Suite this year. The competition will pit five top solo pipers against each other as they take to the stage to perform a 25-minute medley of their favourite tunes.
• The International Quartet Competition will feature six of the top Grade I pipe band quartets in the world.
• The show Canntaireachd, which takes place on Tuesday 15th August, will feature a collaboration between multi-award winning singers and pipers and will celebrate and explore the relationship between piping and Gaelic song.
• The National Piping Centre’s auditorium will host the Pipe Idol Final, which will see four solo players aged 21 and under compete after winning their heat earlier in the week.
• The Piping Live! Closing Concert will round off the 20th edition with performances by festival favourites, including hugely talented multi-instrumentalists Ross Ainslie and Ali Hutton, who have been involved with Piping Live! since its earliest days. The duo will perform a double header show with Uilleann piper Jarlath Henderson, who performed at the first Piping Live! festival, and guitarist Innes Watson.

In addition, a plethora of free day time events, which will primarily take place at the festival’s iconic Street Café on McPhater Street in Glasgow, will include the ‘Emerging Talent’ stage where daily shows will be performed by up-and-coming traditional music groups, alongside performances by international artists from Brittany, Estonia and Ireland.

Pipe bands from across the globe will perform on Buchanan Street from 12 noon each day of the festival, including artists from Canada, USA, Australia, Belgium and of course Scotland.

The Gig in the Gallery series will return to Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, Glasgow’s stunning flagship gallery, which will host a daily recital featuring international styles of bagpipes. There will also be talks and book launches across the event, and a special gallery of photos from across the festival’s 20 years will also be showcased at the National Piping Centre for all visitors to enjoy.

For those unable to make it to the event in person, live streaming will return, with an exciting programme of live and premiered events and concerts. Find out more at www.pipinglive.co.uk.

If you or your group would like to include a visit to Piping Live! as part of a tailor-made tour of Scotland or the United Kingdom and Ireland, please contact our friendly team today. Or why not enjoy a dedicated Culture Tour with us?