The Atlanta Piping & Drumming Foundation

08/17/2026

The Champion of Champions for 2026 is Field Marshal Montgomery Pipe Band!.

Pipe Major Alan Bevan led Simon Fraser University Pipe Band from Vancouver, to 2026 Grade 1 World Champions! This was the first time in 17 years they have won the Grade 1 Worlds title since 2009, and the first Worlds title for Alan Bevan’s leadership.

Grade 1
1. Simon Fraser University
2. Field Marshal Montgomery
3. Peoples Ford Boghall and Bathgate Caledonia
4. Inveraray and District
5. St Laurence O’Toole
6. Police Scotland Fife
7. Shotts and Dykehead Caledonia
8. Scottish Power
9. St Thomas Alumni
10. 78th Fraser Highlanders – EP
11. Hawthorn
12. Ravara
13. Police Scotland and Federation
Drums: St Laurence O’Toole

Grade 2
1. Ulster Scottish
2. Royal Burgh of Annan
3. Pipe Band Club
4. Bagad Cap Caval
5. Buchan Peterson
6. Uddingston
Drums: Ulster Scottish

Grade 3A
1. Macanta
2. Matt Boyd Memorial
3. Major Sinclair Memorial
4. Livingston Caledonia Pipe Band – EP
5. Elgin and District
6. Greighlan Crossing
Drums: Livingston Caledonia

Grade 3B
1. Drumlough
2. Govan
3. Williamwood
4. Black Raven
5. Stockbridge
6. Troon Caledonia Pipe Band
Drums: Black Raven

Grade 4A
1. Carrigaline
2. City of St. Andrews
3. Cullen
4. Altnaveigh Memorial – EP
5. Heidelberg and District Pipes and Drums
6. Moneygore
Drums: Carrigaline

Grade 4B
1. Bready Ulster Scots
2. Lanark and District
3. Arbroath
4. Royal Air Force of Oman
5. Dumfries
6. 1st Troon Boys Brigade
Drums: Bready Ulster Scots

08/11/2026

The World's is coming!
The Finals draws are here, as well as results:
https://rspba.org/2026/07/08/world-pipe-band-drum-major-championships-draw-published/

Friday Final Draw PDF:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1h46xOr8UTpgL8fYqG1aQhWUOoOFNhyAw/view?usp=sharing

Saturday Final Draw PDF:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1sRxBV6_MjX7VbttiLNZNZwSBL4do3D5e/view?usp=sharing

Watch Live here:
Glasgow Life has Friday's Livestream
https://www.glasgowlife.org.uk/arts-music-and-culture/world-pipe-band-championships/live-streaming

BBC has Saturday's Livestream
https://www.bbc.co.uk/events/ejqz3d

Hear Bob Worrall's commentary on the BBC livestream.

08/09/2026

https://www.pipesdrums.com/article/pipesdrums-2026-guide-to-grade-1-bands-worlds-week-practices-appearances/

As a service to the many pipe band enthusiasts making their way to Glasgow for Piping Live! and the World Pipe Band Championships, we're pleased to publish the 2026 edition of the pipes|drums Guide to World's Week Grade 1 Band Practices. Thirteen bands are entered in Grade 1 at the World Champion

08/05/2026

New pipers: notice the reed section and the gentle approach. I had someone show me a reed that had nicks and notches in it up and down the length. Looked like a chainsaw or a beaver had been used on it. It still sounded off, but, yes, it was easy.

07/29/2026

Our Drummie and I started one at Peachtree Presbyterian years ago that still continues.

I’ve done some individually myself.

What about you or your band?

Here is something that surprises a great many people. One of the most moving Scottish heritage ceremonies in the world was not born in Scotland at all. It was born far from home. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

It is called the Kirkin o the Tartan, a church service in which families bring their clan tartans forward to be blessed. Congregations gather, often with a piper leading the way, and the folded tartans are carried to the front of the kirk while a minister asks a blessing on the families they represent and on the generations who wore them before.

The ceremony as we know it took shape in the United States during the Second World War. A Scottish born minister named Peter Marshall, who served as chaplain to the United States Senate, helped popularise these services to lift the spirits of Scottish Americans and to raise funds in a dark and anxious time. The name echoes an old and painful memory, the years after Culloden when the wearing of tartan was banned by law, and when, the story goes, Highlanders would carry a hidden scrap of their cloth to be quietly blessed in church.

Whether or not every detail of that older story is strictly history, the feeling behind it is entirely true. The Kirkin gives the scattered children of Scotland a way to stand up, in their own churches far from the glens, and say out loud that they remember where they came from. 💙

That is what heritage really is. It is not only the things we inherit, it is the things we choose to keep alive. A family that carries its tartan to the front of a church in Georgia or Ontario or New Zealand is reaching back across the ocean to a hillside their great great grandparents left with breaking hearts.

If your church or your family ever held a Kirkin, or blessed the tartan in any way, I would love to hear which clan cloth your people carried forward.

07/23/2026

Congratulations to Stuart

Stuart Liddell of Inveraray, Scotland, won both light music events and was fourth in the Piobaireachd to win the aggregate Alasdair Crystal Memorial Trophy in the Premier and A Grade events at the annual Inveraray Highland Games. Piobaireachd winner Callum Beaumont of Guardbridge, Scotland, was runn

07/18/2026

A who-dunnit…..

"It's not me... it's somebody else."

It's one of the biggest obstacles to improving a pipe corps.

When the Pipe Major says, "We need to clean this up," don't assume they're talking about someone else.

The fastest-improving pipers ask themselves:

"What can I do better?"

One-on-one sessions with your Pipe Major can reveal timing, blowing, or embellishment issues that are impossible to hear in full-band practice.

The best bands aren't built by players who blame others—they're built by players who are always willing to improve.


https://wix.to/7JRKLrB

07/18/2026

Erm…pinching is not going to help this one!

04/07/2026

A grand Tartan Day to all!

From the Foundation!

03/17/2026

A Happy St. Patrick’s Day!