2020 Maxville officially nixed

The 2020 Glengarry Highland Games at Maxville, Ontario, have been cancelled.

Originally scheduled for July 31 and August 1, the event, which has been staged every year since 1948, is the last outdoor event on the Ontario games circuit to be cancelled due to the COVID-19 crisis.

The competition is the platform for the North American Pipe Band Championships, and generally attracts around 60 bands and more than 200 soloists.

“As upsetting as cancelling this year’s Glengarry Highland Games is, it is very much the right thing to do,” Glengarry Games President Eric Metcalfe said in a statement. “I want to assure you that all the directors and committees will be working hard to produce a spectacular 2021 Games. We look forward to welcoming you back on July 30 and 31, 2021.”

The Friday is used for solo competitions, including the Piobaireachd Society (Canada) Gold Medal events, held apart from the Pipers && Pipe Band Society of Ontario, but run by the Glengarry Highland Games.

“Maxville” is pretty much the last significant outdoor piping and drumming event in the world to be officially cancelled.

The Argyllshire Gathering in Oban, Scotland, has not yet announced its cancellation, but it is widely expected by solo pipers not to be held.

The Glengarry Highland Games attract a paying crowd in the several tens of thousands. In addition to the piping, drumming and pipe band competitions, its Highland dancing, heavy athletics and massed bands are celebrated spectacles. The Prime Minister of Canada often attends the event.

City of Dunedin of Florida was the winner of the 2019 North American Pipe Band Championship.

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