Latest news with #bagpipes
CTV News
11-08-2025
- Entertainment
- CTV News
Fergus Scottish Festival celebrates 80-year run
The Fergus Scottish Festival & Highland Games brought the sound of bagpipes and drums to the city. An annual festival in Fergus has been honouring Scotland's culture since 1946. The Fergus Scottish Festival & Highland Games brought the sound of bagpipes and drums to the city The Fergus Scottish Festival & Highland Games 80th anniversary The Fergus Scottish Festival & Highland Games celebrated its 80th anniversary, August 10, 2025 (Sidra Jafri/CTV News). The event is a tradition that's brought around 25,000 people to the Centre Wellington Community Sportsplex every year, according to Elizabeth Bender, the festival's executive director. 'It's important to us and it has been for the last 79 years, leading up to this big weekend, that the festival started to celebrate local culture and the local community and our Scottish history and roots,' said Bender. 'And all of these years later, we're continuing to do the exact same thing.' Bender said the festival was full of 80th anniversary branded merchandise throughout the grounds, especially a custom made tartan kilt worn by some of the almost 400 volunteers. The Fergus Scottish Festival & Highland Games 80th anniversary The Fergus Scottish Festival & Highland Games celebrated its 80th anniversary, August 10, 2025 (Sidra Jafri/CTV News). According to the festival's website, the special tartan was made with a thread count that symbolizes August 17, 1946, the date the festival was founded. Bender said many attendees are regulars at the event, with some expressing to her how much the festival means to them. 'We have a lot of history within the festival with families and groups that have been coming for a really long time and there's very much a reunion feel to it,' she said. 'So, we're hearing a lot of stories of 'Our families are now connected because we met at the festival and we have a shared Scottish history,' so, that's really, really special for us and very exciting.' Attendees at the festival were able to enjoy pipe bands, live music, various heavy lifting competitions and line dancing workshops. Charles Vandervaart, an actor on the Outlander series, grew up north of Fergus in Orangeville. He said though he's mainly Dutch, the show has helped him embrace his Scottish side from his grandmother. 'I'm fully embracing it and I'm here at the festival and enjoying that beautiful culture,' he said. Vandervaart attended the three-day event on its last day, Sunday, participating in a workshop for Scottish line dancing called ceilidh. 'The nice thing about a ceilidh is, most of the time, the way it's run is you do this dance, they teach you how to do it. You dance with a partner, it's a great time,' he said. 'I don't even know the dances by heart. [You] just learn it as you go but that's kind of the fun part about it — messing up. I don't think you can be bad at ceilidh as long as you commit. That's the whole point, right? And it's about having fun. If you got two left feet, you can still ceilidh.' The Fergus Scottish Festival & Highland Games 80th anniversary The Fergus Scottish Festival & Highland Games celebrated its 80th anniversary, August 10, 2025 (Sidra Jafri/CTV News). Vandervaart said celebrating personal culture is important to understand history. 'I think it's important to understand why I'm Canadian and what the story was there and understanding myself,' he said. 'It kind of opened my eyes to the good and the bad of that history and the colonial past that my ancestors have and kind of respecting the land, respecting the people that were here before me and are the original custodians of what we call Canada now.' Attendees of the festival echoed Vandervaart's words. 'I think if you're not coming out to celebrate [the culture] and keeping it going for our age and younger, then it's going to die off eventually with the older family members and you're not going to learn about it or continue to know about where you came from,' said attendee Haylea Savoy. 'Keep the history going,' added her friend Nairn Major.
BBC News
04-08-2025
- Entertainment
- BBC News
Piper plays on Great Yarmouth beach to keep the peace
A Scottish engineer who lives in Norfolk says he's taken to playing his bagpipes on the beach to keep peace with his Fitzpatrick, 28, from Great Yarmouth, learned to play the pipes when he was in the Boys' Brigade in Troon, people have come to enjoy the tuneful drones including Flower of Scotland, carried on the wind for up to a mile."I don't want to get chucked out of the house; I think the neighbours would be up in arms," he said. Mr Fitzpatrick, who moved to Norfolk in 2021, decided to renew his love of playing the pipes when he moved to Great Yarmouth last year to take up a job as a manufacturing engineer."Playing on the beach, most of the time [the reaction] it's very positive," he said."People are surprised for the most part. I've had people from miles up the beach hear me and have no idea what's going on until they go over a sand dune."But I've not had a bad word so far, so I'll take that as a compliment."He admitted many people had a love-hate relationship with the sounds of the bagpipes."You can tell by the faces of some people," he said."One of my neighbours knows I play; he's an ex-military man so he's quite happy with it, but the other neighbour doesn't know yet and might not ever find out."[On the beach] I'm out of the way of most people... People sit on the benches, and I can only really tell they're listening to me when I stop and they leave."I do quite like the sand dunes out here because it reminds me of my hometown and where I first learned the pipes with the 1st Troon Boys' Brigade, where it's rainy, windy and lovely all at the same time." Pat Angel, 76, and her husband David, 79, stopped during their walk to take pictures and a video."He's really good. It's lovely to see. It's something different," she said. Cindy Gough, 57, from Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, was enjoying drinks at Munchies Café on the promenade when the Mr Fitzpatrick was playing."I turned up and thought it was brilliant," she said."It's really nice to hear it but this is what it is to be British, isn't it? It's really lovely [and] beautiful to listen to."Her daughter Emily and grandson Anakin also enjoyed the said: "I think it's lovely... really relaxing to sit here and have a cup of tea and listen to the bagpipes." Ellen Bygrave, 57, from Stokesby, near Great Yarmouth was out walking on the promenade with her grandchildren."Absolutely lovely to hear. The sound's wonderful," she said. Follow Norfolk news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.
BBC News
13-07-2025
- Entertainment
- BBC News
The cycling couple aiming to play the bagpipes in 19 countries
Choosing what to take away with you is a common dilemma for holidaymakers the world for Matt Kidd and Jess Gray, packing has an extra layer of difficulty - as they'll be going to 19 different countries over the course of a adventurous couple know one item they'll definitely be needing intends to play the bagpipes in each country visited, starting this week in Norway while viewing the Northern lights and concluding in Indonesia around 12 months later. "When you are cycling and staying in places, wherever you are in the world, people look after you", explains Matt, who is from Glasgow. "It's something Jess and I have experienced before, and to have the pipes with you is one of those ways you can give back. "People won't take money for their kindness, but they will take a sharing of your culture, and that's what this is. I did it when I was 19 and it went down a storm, but I didn't quite realise what I was doing then!" The duo hope to be playing the bagpipes in varied locations as they go across Europe and Asia, from local festivals to the likes of the Arctic Cathedral, the Norwegian landmark in Tromso. A keen piper since he became hooked on the instrument after a trip to the Edinburgh Tattoo as a child, Matt has experience of sharing the pipes in unusual and Jess lived in China for a spell, working again as teachers. While there Matt formed the country's first ever youth pipe band in Shanghai and found himself appearing on local TV to promote he is excited by the latest trip he's planned with his partner."Jess and I have wanted to do this for years. We've done loads of cycle tours before and with the experience we've got, it's the best situation I've ever been in to do this."Doing it with the pipes makes it more special though." A former navy officer, Matt and Jess decided to go travelling just three months after they began dating several years since worked as English teachers in Ecuador, lived in Paris and worked in China, while previous challenges saw the duo kayak the full length of the River Ganges in India and cycle from Kazakhstan to time the pedalling pursuit is in aid of Glasgow charity Refuweegee, setting themselves a target of raising £42,700 to reflect 42.7 million refugees displaced is a charity Matt believes shows Glasgow "at it's best", by helping others less the trip, which stops in the varied likes of Denmark, Kosovo, Turkey, Uzbekistan and India, has a number of planning issues to overcome."There's the logistics of what to take," he explains."We'll be going from snowy weather in Alta to the crazy heat of Europe and then it's winter in Kazakhtan – crossing there is the scariest section. It's just emptiness there. There are roads but it's a very empty bit of land." 'Women aren't allowed on bikes in Afghanistan' Other issues have involved countries they can't get into. As their plans are flexible, the couple were unable to secure entry into China, where an itinerary of their plans would have been problem ruled out travelling across Afghanistan, but it was nothing to do with any fears of violence in the country."We can't go through Afghanistan because women aren't allowed on bikes there. That's the actual reason, it's not because of any conflict there. "There's quite a lot of cycle tourists that go through the country but they're all males." However the couple have still plotted out a route that should - hopefully - see them finish up in that point, Matt hopes to have shared the pipes in every country they've stopped in along the way."You never know what'll happen when the pipes come out. At the back of our mind it is all about wanting to circumnavigate the globe but we know it will be exhausting."It'll be interesting to see where it takes us."
The Guardian
04-07-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Oasis good for GDP? Definitely maybe not
The suggestion that the Oasis gigs will 'inject £940 million into the UK economy' (Will it be rowdier than the rugby? Cardiff gears up for Oasis reunion opening night , 3 July) is the type of thing said about any big events, but I suspect that there is no injection, as it's not 'new' money being created: people chose to spend their pre-existing cash on one thing instead of something else. Certainly as a Cardiff resident I won't feel any financial benefit from the Oasis RennieCardiff It has been alleged that Palestine Action caused £7m of damage to two Voyager planes at RAF Brize Norton. I would like to recommend my new business to the RAF – I would clean their planes of red paint for the bargain price of £5m, thus saving the government £2m. A bargain. Where can I apply?Richard FieldingAbthorpe, Northamptonshire When my son, at 36, said he was about to learn the bagpipes (Letters, 3 July), he was unamused when I asked: 'How will you know when you've done so?'Roy ArnoldTenterden, Kent What's the difference between an onion and a set of bagpipes? Nobody cries when you chop up a set of JohnsonDumfries In defence of the bagpipes: go and listen to the mass bagpipes at the competitions held in southern Brittany each summer. Wonderful!Julia JonesHolmfirth, West Yorkshire Have an opinion on anything you've read in the Guardian today? Please email us your letter and it will be considered for publication in our letters section.
The Guardian
30-06-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
How to describe the sound of bagpipes?
Your review of Rod Stewart at Glastonbury said that the great man was heralded on stage by the 'blare of bagpipes' (29 June). Call me pedantic but surely you could have come up with a less pejorative term to describe the stirring sound of the pipes? Mike PenderCardiff If the UK government put as much effort into stopping Israel's violence against the Palestinian people as they do into condemning stage acts at Glastonbury, there might be some grounds for hope (Streeting condemns anti-IDF chants at Glastonbury but says 'Israel should get its own house in order', 29 June).Douglas CurrieEdinburgh As a 10-year-old, I bought a bottle of green ink in 1955 at a summer fete (Letters, 29 June). I used it at school in my exercise book and was reprimanded by my teacher, who sent me to my previous year's teacher for his expected caustic comment. He was more easy-going, saying: 'You must be as green as the ink you are using' and sent me back to my class Noel SmithTring, Hertfordshire Re your letter about losing the definite article (29 June), I have three violins. Sometimes I play this one, sometimes that one, or the other one. So it could be said I'm playing a violin rather than 'the' violin. Or, more simply, I play WatsonGlasgow Am I the only woman to be offended by the portrayal of my (ageing) breasts on the front cover of Saturday magazine as cherry buns ('A marker of luxury and arrogance': why gravity-defying boobs are back – and what they say about the state of the world, 28 June), or am I turning into my mother?Jean AllenIpswich, Suffolk Have an opinion on anything you've read in the Guardian today? Please email us your letter and it will be considered for publication in our letters section.
