Piping Live!
Piping Live!, Glasgow's International Piping Festival, will return for its 22nd edition this summer with an eclectic calendar of events from Monday 11th - Sunday 17th August!
About Piping Live!
Piping Live! is an annual festival showcasing a world-renowned programme of events celebrating the best talent in contemporary and traditional piping.
The Piping Live! team, with thanks to their funding supporters Glasgow Life, EventScotland and the William Grant Foundation, have put together an eclectic and varied programme that ensures the event stays true to its reputation as the world’s biggest piping festival.
Most events will be held in and around The National Piping Centre – home to an internationally acclaimed teaching school that supports pipers at the beginning of their piping journey. The National Piping Centre is a destination itself, with a hidden gem 40-seat restaurant The Pipers’ Tryst, a bespoke 8-bedroom hotel, a Bagpipe Shop, a Museum of Piping and a Library of Piping Archives.
This year the festival is also delighted to have Belhaven onboard as the sponsor for our emerging talent and international artists.
Highlights of this year’s programme:
The week will get formally underway on Monday 11th August with the iconic Piping Live! Big Band, in association with our charity partner Eilidh’s Trust, welcoming pipers and drummers of all ages and abilities to join the festival’s mass participation event, filling the city centre streets with music as they march from Mansfield Park in Partick to Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum.
Piping Live!'s premier solo piping competition, The R.G. Hardie & Co Masters Solo Piping Competition, will kickstart the week, held in the National Piping Centre. Competitors include gold medallists, Glenfiddich Champions and international prize-winners, making this solo piping at its very best.
Buchanan Street will be awash with the sound of pipes from Monday 11th to Thursday 14th August, with free, open-air performances by pipe bands from across the globe taking place each day. Including sets from the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo Pipes and Drums, the Brisbane Boys College, Murrumba Pipe Band and more. These free performances offer a fantastic chance to experience world-class piping in the bustling heart of the city centre.
The first headliner of the Centre Stage will perform on Monday evening – the award-winning folk trio Assynt. The group have come to be recognised for their tight-knit fiddle and pipe playing blended with intricate guitar lines and grooves.
Other exciting names that will be on the line-up this year include Uist band, Beinn Lee. The six-piece has a very strong Gaelic traditional backbone to their performances, but their music of contemporary and self-penned tunes and songs are infused with diverse modern influences. Also joining the line-up this year is Malin Lewis - an award-winning piper, fiddler, composer and instrument-maker from Moidart and Skye – to perform this year.
The festival will stage some ‘soft launch’ events on Friday 8th and Saturday 9th August featuring Bruce MacGregor, founder of Blazin’ Fiddles, presenter of BBC Travelling Folk and owner of Scotland’s reigning best music bar MacGregor’s in Inverness. On Friday evening there will be a MacGregor’s Gathering in the National Piping Centre which will also be livestreamed online. Meanwhile on Saturday afternoon there will be a series of workshops focusing on Highland fiddle music influenced by the pipes. That evening participants will join Bruce MacGregor, Cailean Mckerron and Ali Duncan (workshop hosts) to perform alongside the MacGregor’s Gathering musicians to create a ‘ceilidh like no other’.
Other flagship events of the festival will be returning by popular demand, including the hugely anticipated Pipe Idol event – a fantastic Under 21 solo piping competition, sponsored by Fred Morrison Pipes, that sees top competitors from across the world participate to be named the winner.
The Gordon Duncan Memorial Piping Competition will be taking place at The National Piping Centre Auditorium in the afternoon of Wednesday 13th August. Supported by the Gordon Duncan Memorial Trust, the prestigious competition sees four pipers compete by playing Scottish, Irish and Breton music in celebration of the life of piping legend Gordon Duncan.
Other stand-out events on the jam-packed calendar for 2025 will also take place in event area The Bothy: with everything from Ceilidh Tots for the wee ones, album and book launches, conversation events and more.
Where possible we will update our listings to notify of cancelled, postponed and rescheduled events, however we STRONGLY ADVISE that you check with the venue/organiser in the first instance for updates.
All information (whether in text or photographs) is supplied in good faith but should not be relied upon as being a statement of representation or fact.GOT AN EVENT TO SHARE? It's free to post your events on What's On Glasgow, click here to find out more!
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