Kilt pictures galore taken at Christchurch Highland Day 1 December 2012

[Grouse Claw]

Kilts galore in Christchurch, New Zealand, just a few weeks after the Hororata Highland Games.

The Canterbury Caledonian Society's Pipe Band Highland Day was staged at the University of Canterbury grounds on December 1, 2012. It was sponsored by the Christchurch Casino, with a number of smaller sponsors helping out too.

This was the second year at this venue. It had previously been held at Victoria Square, in the city, but the earthquakes rendered that location unusable.

Competing bands were the Canterbury Caledonian Society, the City of Invercargill Highland Pipe Band, St Andrews College (Christchurch) with two bands, Canterbury Caledonian Juvenile, South Canterbury Highland Pipe Band, McAlpines North Canterbury Highland Pipe Band, Balclutha Pipe Band, Canterbury Caledonian Society Balmoral Pipe Band, Riccarton and Scottish Society Pipe Band, Celtic Pipe Band, Canterbury Caledonian Royal Stewarts, Manawatu Scottish No2 band. So they came from Manawatu in the North Island right down to Invercargill in the Deep South.

Competitions were also held for side drumming, and tenor and bass drumming.

I took many photos, but offer the best 52 here. Did I say lots of kilts? That's why this item is on the board. You are saying that you love photos. Well, here they are!

Link to the Highland Day http://www.flickr.com/photos/sandy1fairservice/sets/

[cck]

Thank you for the wonderful photos. I had the good fortune to visit your beautiful city on a couple of occasions and thoroughly enjoyed it. How disheartening it was to learn of the terrible earthquake and the damage it did to Christ Church.

[KiltedDixon]

Thanks for sharing!

[Grouse Claw]

My pleasure to take and show pics for all.

[tulloch]

Really wonderful photos. Thanks. I really would love to visit NZ some time.

[OC Richard]

Thanks for the photos!

As somebody who has played in pipe bands for over 30 years, I really enjoy seeing bands in different parts of the world.

The first thing that struck me about your bands there are the "old school" tartans: Royal Stewart, Black Watch, MacKenzie, Hunting Stewart, that is, tartans drawn from the canon of Scottish military tartans.

It struck me because the last decade or so has seen a large percentage of the bands inScotland going to bespoke tartans, district tartans, and "fashion" tartans (Scotland 2000, Isle of Skye, Spirit of Scotland, Flower of Scotland, Scottish National, etc).

Likewise here in the USA bands used to wear the old Scottish tartans but nowadays are going for State tartans (California, Kentucky, Georgia, etc) and other more recent designs.

BTW what is the tartan worn by the band with the red shirts? It almost looks like one of the American tartans.

Thanks again! Richard