News

Registration Closed For Bagpipe Competition

July 2, 2009

When the Great American Irish Festival decided to explore the possibility of running a pipe band competition, it was a decision that was not made lightly. We researched other pipe band competitions, observed what went right and what went wrong at other events and talked with bands about what they liked and didn't like about similar events. We took these observations and comments and went about implementing the positives and eliminating the negatives. We offered prize money higher than most, if not all, competitions in New York State. We took steps to make the bands' visit as comfortable and seamless as possible and provided free three day passes to competing band members at a time when other competitions charged them festival admission. Perhaps most important, appreciating the great spectacle, pageantry and history of the massed band performance, we took the unprecedented action of shutting down our two major stages during the massed band performance to allow for an undisturbed performance and maximum spectator participation, so that, during the massed band performance, the stages would become quiet and the valley would roar with the sound of majestic pipe music. In short, our goal was to make the Great American Irish Festival the most fan-friendly and band-friendly bagpipe competition in the northeast, if not the nation. Well, we succeeded beyond our expectations. Last year's event drew seven bands, a respectable number for a first year event, and the feedback from all the bands and judges was overwhelmingly positive. As a new competition, we anticipated that we would grow gradually over time, adding more bands every year as our reputation grew and word of mouth spread. Evidently we did something right last year and the word spread, as we were blown away by the number of bands registering for this year's competition. The number of registering bands more than doubled, and while this is unquestionably a good thing, and something in which we take justifiable pride, it does carry some drawbacks. Chief among those is the fact that the number of bands already registered has filled the time we've allotted and we made the difficult decision to suspend further band registration for this year. Any pipe bands registering between now and the registration deadline of July 6th will be placed on a waiting list, in the event that a band cancels. Our options are open for next year and we will be exploring the possibility of running two competition circles running concurrently. Whatever our decision for next year, it will be made in the best interest of the pipe bands. We would like to thank the pipe bands for their tremendous support and vote of confidence. See you on competition day.