Bell rings Saturday for Ontario season
Thirty-two bands are set to compete at the first outdoor event of the Pipers & Pipe Band Association of Ontario’s 2009 season, with four in the Grade 1 Medley event, on Saturday, June 13th in Georgetown, Ontario.
The Grade 1 event will feature the three Ontario-based bands plus the 78th Highlanders (Halifax Citadel), which will make its first trip to the traditional Ontario season-opener, considered one of the smaller events on the Rota, though often cited as a favourite with pipers and drummers.
The contest also marks the Ontario debut of the Grade 1 Peel Regional Police under new Pipe-Major John Cairns, who took over the band in September of last year after committing more than a decade with the Scottish Lion-78th Fraser Highlanders.
The Grade 3 band event also features the home-province first appearance of an altogether new band, with the newly formed Burnett’s & Struth Pipe Band set to take the field after a successful competitive debut at the Alma Highland Games in Michigan in May.
The Grade 1 band event has been made a “medley-of-choice” event, allowing bands to showcase their best work out of the gate.
As usual Georgetown has a large number of entries in the solo competitions, with several amateur grades broken into two sections.
Stay tuned to pipes|drums for results and recordings from Georgetown.
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