Copenhagen contest offers £1,000 prizes

The Copenhagen Winter Competition has been running for at least 40 years and now, with new leadership, is greatly increasing prize money in the hope of attracting more attention and entries from top-tier competitors.

Under the direction of new chair Bernard Bouhadana, the Danish contest will offer £1,000 each for the top aggregate solo piper, snare drummer and tenor drummer at the March 12-13, 2016, contest, making among the richest prizes, not only in Europe, but the world.

McCallum Bagpipes will also contribute more than £1,000 in merchandise that will be awarded to prize-winners.

“Denmark would not be the first country to spring to mind when listing the world’s foremost bagpipe-playing nations,” Bouhadana said, “and with good reason since the Danish pipe band scene has mostly been what you would expect: half a century of about a dozen bands of relatively little import in the grand scheme of things. Only time will tell if Denmark will one day be cited as a great piping and drumming nation, but it seems more likely today than it ever has.”

The contest will also offer accommodation on-site for as little as £14 to sweeten the deal for those travelling to the event.

Denmark has not produced many competition pipe bands, but this year the Grade 2 Balagan Pipe Band was started by Bouhadana, attracting players from mostly from Europe and around the world, ostensibly to compete at the World’s, where it qualified for the Grade 2 Final and finished ninth overall.

Denmark was determined to be the happiest country on earth, according to the 2013 World Happiness Report.