Piping 'in good heart'
CENTRAL Dunedin rang with the skirl of the pipes at the weekend as pipe bands from throughout the South converged on the city for the annual Octagonal Day activities.
The Otago Centre of the Royal New Zealand Pipe Band Association hosted the event in and near the Octagon on Saturday, and several hundred people watched one midafternoon piping performance.
Among the other highlights was a massed street march from the Octagon towards Moray Pl at 4.30pm on Saturday and a further massed performance before a midafternoon prizegiving yesterday at the North Ground.
Annual weekend pipe band events have long been held in the Octagon but, for the first time in many years, yesterday’s OtagoSouthland Provincial Pipe Band Contest was switched from the Octagon to the North Ground.
About 250 band members, accompanied by travelling friends, family and supporters, took part in the weekend events, which attracted 13 pipe bands from as far afield as Invercargill and Christchurch.
Event organisers said the interprovincial contest’s change of venue was because the Dunedin City Council had accepted an earlier booking for the Octagon by another organisation, as well as nearby business owners having voiced concerns.
Otago Centre president Dr Brian Coutts said Dunedin enjoyed strong Scottish cultural traditions as the Edinburgh of the South, and piping remained in good heart in the region.
He remained optimistic about the future, but piping faced ‘‘severe’’ challenges in Dunedin and elsewhere in Otago, including through the loss of younger band members, including when brighter job prospects lured them away to the North Island or Australia.
The recent loss of the Green Island Pipe Band further highlighted the challenges.
He urged the community to continue to support and pro tect Dunedin and Otago’s strong piping traditions.
‘‘We need to be seen to be the Edinburgh of the South and not just tell ourselves that we are the Edinburgh of the South.
‘‘We need more kids coming through, more kids taking up the pipes and drumming.’’
Dr Coutts, who retired from the University of Otago Surveying School last year, said he had been a pipe bandsman — a drummer and drum major — since he was 12, and this had been an ‘‘absolute passion’’ for most of his life.
He has also performed as a pipe band drum major at the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo, the Virginia International Tattoo and the March of the Immortal Regiment in Moscow.