Congratulations to Piping Live! – Glasgow International Piping Festival who has been nominated in Event of the Year sponsored by VisitScotland in the MG ALBA Scots Trad Music Awards 2022. Vote for Piping Live! – Glasgow International Piping Festival now!. It’s going to be another great night at the MG ALBA Scots Trad Music Awards on Sunday 4th December in Dundee’s Caird Hall. Why not join us for a brilliant night of music and awards. Buy a ticket here.
We asked Helen of Piping Live! – Glasgow International Piping Festival the following questions.
Tell us about yourself
Glasgow International Piping Festival is a week-long celebration presenting the UK’s and the World’s biggest spectacle of piping. In 2022, the festival saw a return to full activity after smaller online and hybrid events in 2020 and 2021. This year was the 19th edition of the festival and saw over 18,000 audience members attend around 100 music performances from pipers from 13 countries incl Hungary, Estonia, Argentina and the world's first professional female piper from Iran.
Why are you involved in Scottish music?
Bagpipes are one of the most recognised symbols of Scotland, Piping Live! celebrates this instrument in all its forms, with a focus on Scottish traditional music, as well as celebrating the bagpipe cultures from around the world.
Any particular career highlights?
In 2022, Piping Live! returned to it's full programme of events, in venues across Glasgow. Alongside this, it kept its hybrid model of livestreaming around 50 hours of content. This meant that Piping Live!'s audience reach was well over 30,000 across the globe. Within the artist line up we wanted to show the diversity in piping, and invited Iran's first professional female piper to take part in 2022 as well as showcasing other international piping styles and the diversity within Scottish piping traditions with an avant garde piping night new to the programme this year.
Piping Live! has also taken steps forward with our audience wellbeing and sustainability of the event. Friendlyfests.com looked at over 60 Scottish festivals and we were one of only 2 events iwth any sort of anti-harrassment policy on our website. But to further this, we developed our anti-harrassment policy further, and gave all staff and volunteers a QR code to access the procedure immediately so that everyone felt they would know how to handle any report immediately. We also looked at the sustainability of the festival merchandise, choosing a supplier that was registered with the Fair Wear Foundation, which ensure ethical production methods and fair wages to garment workers.
We also started working with two different communities for Piping Live! 2022. We reached out the local Chinese community, which is based in close proximity to The National Piping Centre. Around 50 people attended a special event to ontriduce them to the festival and the instrument. We also began working with Deaf Action Scotland, and had a BSL interpreter present a couple of our events including a come and try session to bring people with hearing impairments to a new musical instrument.
Briging the festival back after two disrupted years was a huge challenge, but also bringing in new events, artists and positive social change through our event meant that Piping Live! 2022 was a special event.
What are your plans for the future?
In 2023, Piping Live! will celebrate its 20th edition. This landmark event will be celebrated with programming celebrating the world of bagpipes, as well as continuing to develop the musical landscape for piping, with more avant grade music, a more diverse line up and welcoming more communities from across Scotland and beyond. We hope to have a special large scale concert to celebrate our anniversary.
We will also continue to develop our event sustainability, putting in place new practices that can help reduce the carbon footprint of the event. We want to ensure that Piping Live! is a safe place for everyone so will continue to develop our policies with this in mind. We want to continue our work with a number of different communities across Scotland to bring bagpipes to everyone.
Piping Live! – Glasgow International Piping Festival Social Media
Website: https://pipinglive.co.uk/
Facebook: @PipingLiveFestival
Twitter: @glasgowpiping
Instagram: @PipingLive
YouTube: @
TikTok: @TheNationalPipingCentre
The 2022 MG ALBA Scots Trad Music Awards are back to normal on the 4th December 2022! You will be able to watch it live in person (buy a ticket here),Watch it live in the UK at 9pm (GMT) on BBC ALBA and and around the world here. Bands performing on Sunday 4th December include Elephant Sessions, Fara, Trip, Eryn Rae Trio, The Auldeners, Gordon Shand Scottish Dance Band, Irish Minstrels, Tayside Young Fiddlers, and a James Alexander Tribute.
If you would like to support Hands Up for Trad in their work with Scottish trad music and musicians why not become a friend of Hands Up for Trad. In addition to our high profile events like the Scots Trad Music Awards, we also deliver a less well known, education programme for young people from 8yrs right through to young adults at the start of their careers. Read more here.
