Get ready to shred. Pipe Idol 2026 auditions now open

If you’re a piper not yet 21 and ready to shred on the world’s biggest stage, the time is now to audition for Pipe Idol 2026, the popular annual event at Glasgow’s Piping Live! festival.

Since 2004, numerous Pipe Idol winners have gone on to piping glory, including Highland Society of London Gold Medallists Connor Sinclair (2013) and Brodie Watson-Massey (2019), Silver Medallist Cameron Bonar and solo supremo Sarah Muir (2010).

For the uninitiated, the contest comprises four heats, each with four competitors, one of whom is chosen by a group of unidentified judges scattered throughout the audience. The four winners of each heat then go at it in a grand final at the National Piping Centre’s Auditorium, again judged by anonymous judges who determine the new titleholder, who receives a spanking new set of Fred Morrison Reelpipes.

Piping Live! 2026 begins on Sunday, August 9th and goes until Friday, August 14th. Pipe Idol Heat 1 will be on Monday, August 10th, and the final is on Thursday, August 13th (the same day as Heat 4).

In each round and in the final, contestants need to perform music of their own choice, but in these formats:

• One hornpipe and one jig
• A competition-style MSR
• A five-to-seven-minute medley

If you’ll be younger than 21 as of August 13, 2026, and feel you have the light music chops, entry is by a recorded video of you showing your best stuff on the Highland pipes. The video must be of you playing a Hornpipe & Jig and an MSR.

The deadline to submit a video is Wednesday, May 1st, 17:00 GMT, and you’ll be telt the next week if you’re one of the chosen 16.

Be sure to record the audition video before completing the application form. Read the details at the link carefully.

With many of the world’s best young pipers not from Scotland, the organizers always hope for a strong international representation.

Happy shredding.