Two bagpipe bands from Wake County will compete this weekend at the Greater Greenville Scottish Games and Highland Festival in South Carolina. Wake and District Public Safety Pipes and Drums band is a highly successful grade V band assembled in 2005 by piper Joe Brady, a police officer for the City of Clayton. The band took first place in the grade V competition earlier this summer at the Gatlinburg Scottish Festival and Games in Tennessee. Wake and District Public Safety Pipes and Drums band is comprised of both public safety officers and community members.

The North Carolina State University Pipes and Drums grade III band will also compete this weekend. Two N.C. State University graduate students founded the band in 1968 as an all-student group. Since then, NCSU Pipes and Drums band has come to include members of the community. The grade III band is now under the direction of John Sprague, a member of the original all-student band, and pipe major Steven Fisher, originally from Albany, NY and the Schenectady Pipe Band in New York. The grade III band will compete against Charleston Police Pipes and Drums from South Carolina. Grade III bands are more experienced and skilled bands as a whole. Grade V bands are beginner bands, but have experienced and skilled players, as well as beginner players.

Related Links

1. http://www.greenvillegames.org/
2. http://ncfop88.org/wand/
3. http://www.ncsu.edu/pipesanddrums