General News
9 May, 2025
Pipes to take town by storm
Maryborough will once again showcase the heart of Celtic tradition at the upcoming Victorian Pipeband Championships.
Princes Park will become a centre of fierce competition and precise musicianship as pipe bands throughout Victoria assemble for the highly anticipated event.
Maryborough Highland Society manager Malcolm Blandthorn said the championships are a major event for competing bands.
“We will have every competition band in Victoria, this is going to be the biggest event they have for the year,” he said.
Events on the day include highland pipe band competitions, Girl on the Drum, Highland Dancing, strong man and strong women events, food vendors and clan tents.
“We have eight bands in the parade, which starts at 10.30 am, once that is over, people can wander through into the main event itself,” Mr Blandthorn said.
“There are five different grades competing on the day, with the number of bands we have, the circles competing will have the hospitality tent in the middle. Spectators can jump in between whilst enjoying the sounds of Scotland.”
Overall, around 20 bands will be competing at the event, with an interstate band from Canberra attending.
“Every competition band in Victoria is actually making the effort to come to this event, it’s quite a big event for the society to be able to bring into town,” Mr Blandthorn said.
He said championships have made their way back to Maryborough following the success of the national competition last year.
“As the Victorian Pipe Band Association has said, being able to host the event again has a lot to do with how we hosted last year, and how good the numbers were,” Mr Blandthorn said.
“We are thankful for the opportunity to be able to host the event and bring it to a smaller community. The feedback we got from Pipe Bands Australia last year was the sense of smaller community made it a better event.
“In years prior, it was held in Brisbane and Sydney, so to come to a place like Maryborough was very big for us, so we are excited to be able to bring it back.”
He also acknowledged the support from volunteers throughout the community leading up to the event.
“It takes a lot of volunteers to put something like this together, the Carisbrook Lions Club have put up their hand again to man the gates for us. We are very fortunate that we have got a few groups helping us out,” he said.
The Victorian Pipeband Championships will be on Saturday, May 17, starting at 10.30 am. Entry is $15 for adults, $10 for seniors and free entry for those under 16.