Piping At Forres, the European Pipe Band Championships, took place in the stunning setting of Grant Park six times, from 2013 to 2018.
The European Pipe Band Championships, the piping competition run by the Royal Scottish Pipe Band (RSPBA) that took place within Piping At Forres, is second only to the World Championships in terms of prestige and importance to pipe bands.
Thousands of pipers, drummers, drum majors and Highland dancers visited Forres over the six-year run of the championships at Forres. Local traders provided a stunning showcase of Scottish food and drink, craft and retail items and businesses got behind the event by becoming sponsors.
Piping At Forres scored over 9 out of 10 for overall enjoyment each year in feedback and its Facebook reviews give it 4.8 stars from over 170 reviews.
Piping At Forres was Moray’s biggest one day event in the years it ran, and delivered an annual economic benefit of over a million pounds to the area For example, in 2017 some 14,330 visitors and competitors together attended the event, supported by 210 paid and volunteer staff, together with 850 others (traders, RSPBA officials etc.), so over 15,000 in total.
While the majority of the bands, averaging over 100 each year, came from Scotland the event attracted bands from as far away as Australia and Oman. Visitors stayed across a broad swath of the local area, from Inverness to Aviemore to Elgin and even Aberdeen. Traders likewise were mostly local but some came from further afield, including specialist piping traders who came from as far away as Belfast.
Piping At Forres included the World Tattie Scone Championships from their inauguration in 2013 to 2018. These Championships are currently held in Nairn as part of “Taste of Nairn”.
The event was run by a volunteer Organising Committee, under the guidance of a volunteer Board of Directors, from within and around Forres; volunteers with the interest, time and skills to deliver this. The vision grew. The needs of the different stakeholders were identified and championed within the team.
Skills honed in the selling of whisky, travel, and ice-cream, and in building complex engineering solutions, came together with experience in the law, accountancy, the armed forces and uniformed services; to form a highly experienced business team with not a professional event manager in sight! That experience, and inexperience, allowed the team to start from scratch with the ability and confidence to refine and adapt the best of the results of the previous years and of their extensive research into other events. Expertise was bought in where necessary, but thousands of hours of time were donated, by well over a hundred individuals, each year.
Why was 2018 the last event?
So why did Forres Events Ltd, the company behind Piping At Forres, decide that the event on 30 June 2018 would be last one? It is an unusual business decision to stop selling a successful product, and Piping At Forres is most certainly a successful product.
Forres Events is a not–for–profit company, committed to running the event for the economic benefit of the area. Imagine 15,000 customers, including the public, competitors, stallholders, sponsors, volunteers and the RSPBA, each with their own aspirations and desired outcomes for the day. Then having only 8 hours a year in which to try and fulfil all those outcomes, with a staff of over a hundred people as volunteers! Not a straightforward business model.
“There are only so many times one can ask people with their own businesses to run, jobs to do, and retirement to enjoy to give up their time, totalling thousands of hours a year, for free. There are only so many times one can ask the town, its businesses and residents to turn out to support and help”, explained Alan James, Chairman of the company and Piping At Forres’ Chieftain for 2018. “The team, the event having succeeded all expectations, did not want to see it fade away. So for the moment they are focused on delivering a sixth great event, then taking a well-earned break. After that, Forres Events may well be back with a different proposition; only time will tell”.
Piping At Forres included the World Tattie Scone Championships from their inauguration in 2013 to 2018. These Championships are currently held in Nairn as part of “Taste of Nairn”.
Awards
Piping At Forres was recognised as an award-winning event. It was named as the winner of the Community Tourism Award on 4th November 2015, an award sponsored by Moray Economic Enterprise and Highlands and Islands Enterprise.
It was also one of four events in the shortlist for the Best Cultural Event or Festival in the Highland and Islands Tourism Awards 2016 and was awarded a Judges Commendation as well as being on the shortlist in the same awards in 2015.
Volunteers
The planning and delivery of these events was by volunteers. Without their commitment between 2013-2018, the event would not have been possible and for that, they deserve a special mention.
Speaking in 2015, Mark Laing, the Patron of the Championships said: “Piping At Forres is a great event that offers a wonderful day of music and spectacle as well as showcasing local food, drink and craft and I know that behind the scenes there is a lot of hard work by a wonderful group of volunteers. Their enthusiasm and professionalism helps make the event such a success. Recognition of their efforts in this way is well deserved”. That remains the case for all the years of Piping At Forres.
“What a fantastic day, a great atmosphere and amazing to see so many pipe bands. Well laid out and organised.”