Pipe Band Kilts

[pipesndrumsnun]

Hello!
Do you know of any pipe bands were everyone wears different tartan kilts, or would this just look like a big mess?

[MacMullen]

The pipe band that plays up here in Marquette every 4th of July wears a variety of tartans and they look great!

[Chef]

I've seen it a few times and the only time it worked, in my opinion, was everything else the band wore was Identical, shoes, hose, sporran, shirt, pipes, hat etc.. So it looked like it was planned that way. Otherwise it doesn't look like a band just a bunch of pipers playing together.

Granted, I am ex-military so uniformity in a situation like that is rather important to me eye.

[Macman]

I've seen it a few times and the only time it worked, in my opinion, was everything else the band wore was Identical, shoes, hose, sporran, shirt, pipes, hat etc.. So it looked like it was planned that way. Otherwise it doesn't look like a band just a bunch of pipers playing together.

Same here. I agree that everything else should match.

[Panache]

The Santa Cruz Pipe and Drums wear different tartans with the same accessories. I believe that they require that the tartans be primarily green with blue though.



I thought they looked nice, though I think it is more impressive if a band all wears the same tartan.

Cheers

Jamie

[beloitpiper]

I thought they looked nice, though I think it is more impressive if a band all wears the same tartan.

I agree. The only time I think I would like to see different tartans marching together is during a massed bands performance.

[lrpddrummie]

As a Drum Major I feel that a band should always have the same tartan as well as uniform accessories. A big part of the performance is the appearance that means everything from head to toe.

www.lochrannochpipesdrums.com

[Pleater]

There is a pipe and drum band which appears at the week long folk festival I attend, and although they all wear the same tartan is is in different shades, some kilts are pleated to the stripe and some to the sett, plus they are of different qualities, some are very heavy, some are thin PV, and the size of the sett is different.

Personally I think that what they have looks more irregular than having different tartans, as they are obviously intending to be the same, and failing.

With the cost of kilts and bagpipes, or a good big drum, it must be quite an undertaking to get the uniform and instrument.

[Wompet]

A big mess? Not necessarily. A distraction? Yes.
There was one band at the Edinboro PA Highland Games this year where everyone wore the same uniform - except one guy who wore a different tartan. And as much as I was concentrating on what they were playing, my attention kept going back to that guy - why wasn't he in the band uniform?

The only other examples I've seen were a band at the Fort Erie Celtic Festival a couple of years ago - half the band was pleated to sett, and the other half to stripe (there's a picture of that here somewhere); and again at Edinboro - the Erepa Grotto Shriners - their kilts were all the same, but the drummers wore red & white argyle hose, and the pipers wore red & black. One of those little details that registers in the back of your mind, and nags at you until you realize it.

[ccga3359]

Personally I think it would look odd.