The National Piping Centre and William Grant Foundation are delighted to confirm the competitor line up for the 51st Glenfiddich Piping Championship, taking place at Blair Castle on Saturday 26th October from 10am.
The Glenfiddich Piping Championship was established in 1974 to bring together the world’s finest pipers and witness some of the finest renditions of the ancient and traditional piobaireachd or ceol mor (the great music) and light music or ceol beag (the little music).
The 10 competitors are invited to play as a result of having won prestigious accolades at other piping events during the last year. This year, the 10 invited participants are all first place prizewinners, which is a very rare occurrence (almost unique!) for the Glenfiddich Piping Championship qualifying events.
This year’s competitors are:
- Callum Beaumont; 2023 Glenfiddich Champion
- Chris Armstrong – Argyllshire Gathering Former Winners MSR Winner
- Alan Bevan – Piping Live! Masters Overall Winner
- Cameron Drummond – Argyllshire Gathering Gold Medallist
- Alasdair Henderson – Argyllshire Gathering Senior Piobaireachd Winner
- Nick Hudson – Northern Meeting Clasp Winner (Senior Piobaireachd)
- Finlay Johnston – 2023 Scottish Piping Society of London Annual Competition Overall Winner
- Stuart Liddell – Northern Meeting Silver Star Winner (Former Winners MSR)
- Roddy MacLeod MBE – 2023 Bratach Gorm Winner
- Craig Sutherland – Northern Meeting Gold Medallist
The judges for this year are: Piobaireachd – Murray Henderson, Ian Duncan, John Wilson
March, Strathspey & Reel – Iain MacFadyen BEM, Dr Angus MacDonald, Richard Parkes MBE
And this year’s Fear an Taigh is Bob Worrall.
Tickets are available now to experience the event live at Blair Castle on Saturday 26th October. These tickets are selling fast and it cannot be guaranteed that there will be any on sale on the day of the event, so book online at the National Piping Centre website in advance, as soon as possible.
Once the day of competition has ended, the annual Pipers’ Ceilidh will take place from 8.30pm at the Atholl Palace Hotel in Pitlochry. As part of the ticket to this event, there will be a buffet dinner served and then a ceilidh until midnight. There are a limited number of tickets available to attend this black tie ceilidh available to purchase along with a ticket to the day of competition.
The event will also, once again, be livestreamed across the world, via the National Piping Centre website. Tickets to purchase this to watch live on Saturday 26th October are also available through the National Piping Centre website.
More information and tickets can be found at: www.thepipingcentre.co.uk/glenfiddich
