All the prizewinners from last year’s competition.

Entries are now open for the 2021 Junior Competition organised by the National Piping Centre.

This will be the 25th year of the contest – and it, like virtually all competitions this year, will be an online video submission competition, rather than an in-person event.

To mark the milestone, however, extra categories have been added, including a Freestyle event.

The 2021 competition will have competitions in the following categories:

Under 12 Chanter – Slow Air and March events;
Under 15 Chanter – Slow Air and March events;

Under 12 Piping – Piobaireachd Ground, March, Strathspey and Reel events;
Under 15 Piping – Piobaireachd, Piobaireachd Ground, March, Strathspey and Reel and Jig events;
U18 Piping – Piobaireachd, March, Strathspey and Reel and Jig events

The Freestyle event is open to all competitors across all age categories. Competitors are encouraged to think creatively about the production and musical content of their submission. Pipes or practice chanter must be the main feature of the performance but the use of additional instrumentation, multiple pipe parts, video editing etc are all permitted. Videos will be judged with due consideration to the whole package. Video submissions in this category must be between 3-5mins in length.

Event timetable:

Online registration will open at 9.00pm UK time on Monday, November 23, 2020 and close at the latest at 5.00pm UK time on Friday, January 15, 2021.

• Submissions must be received between 9.00am UK time on Saturday, January 23, 2021 until midnight UK time on Friday, January 29, 2021.

• The results will be announced by video on the NPC’s Facebook page on Saturday, February 13 at 8.00pm UK time. The results will be available to read in full on Bagpipe.News shortly after the video announcement.

This competition has been higely popular since its inception. Last year’s overall winners were Jaz Scott (chanter), Fraser Hamilton (novice, under 15) and Luke Kennedy (junior).

The Online Entry Form will be available over at The National Piping Centre website from 9pm UK time on Monday 23rd January.

Full details and entry form will be available here.