Glasgow green comes to almost £2-million with 2018 Piping Live! festival

An economic study of the 2018 Piping Live! Glasgow International Piping Festival indicated that the week-long event realized an additional £1.9-million (about $3.25-million) for local coffers.

While that number is positive, it’s £600,000 less than what was reported for the 2017 festival.

+ Piping Live! worth $4.3-million to Glasgow

The Piping Live! 2018 ran from August 13 to 19. The report indicates that some 31,000 people were attracted to more than 150 events, three-quarters of whom were not from Glasgow, 32% from outside of Scotland, and 24% from outside of the UK. While at the festival, non-UK visitors on average spent about £100 each day, the study by the Tourism Resources Company concluded.

The economic study of the 2017 festival showed that attendance was around 50,000, a 9% increase from 2016.

Piping Live! compensates non-competition performers for their work, and many pipe bands offset part of their substantial costs travel to the World Pipe Band Championships with gigs. Bands from outside the UK invest anywhere from $100,000 to $175,000 to travel to Scotland to compete at the World’, which, along with the Pre-World’s Concert at the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, is not officially part of the festival.

Piping Live! was started in 2002, originally named Piping Hot! The event sprung from various ad hoc initiatives, including the Todd Bar Recital Challenge at the University of Strathclyde, which indicated that otherwise idle piping and drumming visitors to Glasgow had a strong desire to have something more than pints and fish suppers for entertainment between band practices.

Disclosure: pipes|drums has been the official media partner of Piping Live! for more than a decade. Just search “Piping Live” on pipes|drums to see  extensive coverage over the years.