Kingston-PPBSO sanctioning talks break down

The independently run Kingston Scottish Festival in Kingston, Ontario, will not be sanctioned by the Pipers & Pipe Band Society of Ontario in 2016 after the association’s board of directors decided, reportedly unanimously, not to renew the designation for solo competitions.

The Kingston festival has operated for more than 10 years without official affiliation with any association, but last year was granted sanctioned status so that prize-winning competitors could gain points towards the PPBSO’s annual Champion Supreme aggregate awards, and thus potentially be more attractive to pipers and drummers.

Rather than use the PPBSO’s fully turnkey approach to running competitions, where the association provides all stewards and judges and administers entries and prizes, collecting entry fees for each event a competitors enters, the Kingston Scottish Festival has organized the entire competition on its own, but, for the last few years, adhered to PPBSO rules. The first years of the festival had used its own more creative rules at times, including having each of the four pipe band judges assessing ensemble.

“As one of the organizers of the Kingston Scottish Festival I am very disappointed by this unexpected announcement,” said Scott Bell, the event’s co-founder and the Pipe-Major of the Grade 3 Rob Roy Pipe Band of Kingston. “Our event abides by all rules and regulations of the PPBSO, hires PPBSO-certified adjudicators, uses the PPBSO chief steward, reports all results to the PPBSO in a timely manner, and best of all, it costs the Society nothing in terms of either time or money. We have been running the Kingston Scottish Festival for the past 10 years. We have developed a successful and risk-free model.  Our income comes from . . .