Maxville Grade 1 contest hit hard by Glasgow’s allure

The 64th annual Glengarry Highland Games will again host the North American Pipe Band Championships, but with a lesser entry than past year, particularly in Grade 1 where only three bands are entered. The 2012 event stands in contrast to last year’s championship when seven bands competed, the largest Grade 1 event in North America in decades.

Solo entries remain strong for the August 3-4 Maxville, Ontario, competition, with nearly 200 individuals entered to compete across piping, snare drumming and mid-section contests.

The allure of the World Pipe Band Championship on August 11 in Glasgow has this year played a major role in the smaller Grade 1 entry, with several bands electing to skip Maxville in favour of getting to Scotland earlier to take part in the North Berwick Highland Games. The North American Championships only a week apart from the World’s has not helped matters either.

In the Grade 1 competition only City of Chicago, the Peel Regional Police and the Toronto Police will take part, and only City of Chicago is not travelling to Glasgow.

For what is believed to be a first, every Grade 1 band from Canada will compete at the World Pipe Band Championships. The 78th Fraser Highlanders, 78th Highlanders Halifax Citadel, Alberta Caledonia, Dowco-Triumph Street and Simon Fraser University will join Peel Police and Toronto Police to comprise a more than a quarter of the 26-band Grade 1 entry at the World’s.

The Piobaireachd Society (Canada) Gold Medal competitions will also be held on Friday with Jim McGillivray judging the events.

The Glengarry Highland Games have taken place annually since 1948.

Sta tuned to pipes|drums Magazine and pipes|drums on Twitter (@pipesdrums) for results from the 2012 North American Championships as they become available.