Glasgow Police competing at the 2019 European Pipe Band Championships held at Bught Park.

Tickets go on sale today for the European Pipe Band Championships next year. The event, scheduled for Saturday, June 27, 2020 at Bught Park, Inverness will, organisers Piping Inverness say, build on the success of the 2019 event, which attracted over 17,500 visitors and over 100 pipe bands from around the world, including Australia and North America.

‘Early Bird tickets’ for the one-day event will be on sale from 09:00 today and will be available to purchase from the Piping Inverness website, www.pipinginverness.com. Trade stall applications can also be made via the website.

Short sleeved Islay Pipe Band marches into the circle during a downpour at the 2019 Europeans.

A spokesman for Piping Inverness said next year’s event, which was marred by poor weather, will offer the same family-friendly fun, but with more entertainment, more art and craft stalls and more food outlets.

Piping Inverness will host the ‘Europeans’ for a further two years (2020 and 2021).

Bill Barr, the USA’s Attorney General, was a guest of the RSPBA at the 2019 event. Mr Barr is a piper and was on vacation at Skibo Castle Hotel in Sutherland.

The 2019 contest saw Inveraray take Grade 1 while Portlethen and District took Grade 2. Deeside Caledonia won Grade 3a (nudging local band, the City of Inverness into second place), Oban High School won Grade 3b and Dollar Academy took the Juvenile grade.

Grades 4a, 4b, Novice Juvenile A and Novice Juvenile B wen to Mid Argyll, Pitlochry, North Lanarkshire Schools and Scotch College, Melbourne respectively.