RSPBA’s Northern Ireland Branch announces 2024 season

The Royal Scottish Pipe Band Association’s Northern Ireland branch is one of the association’s most active, representing one of the world’s most vibrant piping and drumming communities.

RSPBANI has unveiled its 2024 schedule of events, comprising at least 10 pipe band contests and three solo competitions from mid-April to late September.

• April 13: Ulster Solo Championships, Lisburn, Northern Ireland
• April 20: Co. Down Indoors, Dromore, Northern Ireland
• May 4: Irvine Memorial Mini-Bands, Fivemiletown, Northern Ireland
• May 18: UK Championships, Bangor, Northern Ireland
• May 25: Co. Fermanagh Championships, Enniskillen, Northern Ireland
• June 1: MidUlster Championships, Cookstown, Northern Ireland
• June 15: RSPBANI Competition, venue TBC
• June 29: RSPBANI Competition, venue TBC
• July 6: All-Ireland Championships, Donabate, Ireland
• August 3: Ulster Championships, venue TBC
• August 10: RSPBANI Competition, venue TBC
• September 7: UK Solo Drumming Championships, venue TBC
• September 21: All-Ireland & Joint Association Council Solo Championships, Lisburn

The All-Ireland Championships alternate each year between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. The Northern Ireland association and the Irish Pipe Band Association have organized the event together since the competition was first organized in 1946. Field Marshal Montgomery, from Belfast, have won the Grade 1 title a record 27 times, including in 2023.

Northern Ireland has a population of fewer than two-million people, yet boasts more pipe bands per capita than almost any country on earth, supported by a competition– and music-loving tradition of marching bands.

RSPBANI and the Lothian & Borders branch are the only two of eight RSPBA branches with three seats on the association’s board of directors.

In 2023, RSPBANI unveiled its “Every Beat, Every Note, Every Flourish” tagline and logo as part of an elevated marketing and communications program.