Queensland Irish Association Pipe Band

We've just finished up on our workshop weekend, something we do every year, staying at Boonah for two nights in great accommodation.
It was a very productive weekend covering heaps of topics, playing lots of tunes and also enjoying some random music sessions at night with great company.
What a great way to start off 2024.

We had a fantastic Christmas party for our pipeband today 🎄🌲🎄🌲.
It was gorgeous Brisbane weather, 34°C and at a perfect location! Thanks to one of our pipers and his family for having us at their place today.
We ate, drank, had a massive raffle, chilled out, enjoyed each other's company, and of course we played a few tunes.
Our pipeband has had a huge year of performances, competition and travel interstate and overseas to France, and it was great to have a relaxing day to enjoy each other's company and celebrate our fantastic 2023.
Have a great Christmas everyone and we look forward to seeing you all in 2024!
🌲🎄🌲🎄🌲🎄🌲🎄

We recently had the pleasure of playing at Finn's Fest at Finn McCools in the Valley.
Here's a few photos taken at the event by Kel Sanson Photography.

Celebrating 50 years of the GAA here in Queensland, which originally was started for Irish ex-pats who were missing the comradery and familiarity of their national sport.
How proud we are to be supporting the GAA, so today we headed there to help them celebrate their 50 years, marching out on the field with the players behind us, getting ready for their games.

Another great gig tonight!
FINN'S FEST at Finn McCools in Fortitude Valley.
Always a pleasure playing there!
Here's some photos from tonight's gig.

It's on again!
FINNS FEST!
A great day of fun and entertainment, and if you love bagpipes and drums, our pipeband will be there!
So come along to Finn McCool's Fortitude Valley tomorrow, have a great time and enjoy some great music.
Our pipeband will be performing from 6pm in the closed off area of the mall outside of Finn McCools, then we'll head inside for our next performance.
If you love what we do and are interested in joining our pipeband, come over and have a chat. We always welcome new members.
We hope to see you there.

Finn’s Fest - Finn McCool's Brisbane We know how much you guys love live entertainment at Finn's 🇮🇪 As a result, we have some of the best live entertainment coming to perform on the 21st of October as a part of our epic Finns Festl! 🎸 This is the one event that you don't want to miss out on! Make your

Today we had the pleasure of playing at the lunch for the celebration of the 125 year anniversary of the Queensland Irish Association, which was held in the Brisbane Town Hall.

We had a great day up at Toowoomba today, heading off early this morning in our band bus, up the Range for a full on day of performing.
First off was the Grande Parade. The streets along the way were absolutely packed with so many people! We played tunes most of the way with just a couple of drum breaks.
The parade finished at Queens Park where we formed up in a massive circle with both the Toowoomba and Warwick pipebands and played a couple of massed bands tunes.
When this finished we had some group photos taken then we headed to the Irish Club Hotel for a drink and a bite to eat and two 15 minute plays in the pub before heading back to Brisbane, arriving just before sunset.
What a great day!

We're looking forward to the Toowoomba Carnival of Flowers Grand Parade tomorrow, and the weather is looking good!
Give us a wave and shout out when you see us marching past.
We hope to see you there,
🐝🐝🐝🌺🌺🌺🐝🐝🐝

This coming Saturday 16th September is the Toowoomba Carnival of Flowers Grand Parade and we’ll be there!
🐝🌺🐝🌼🐝🌺🐝
We’ll head off from Brisbane early that morning in our band bus and we’ll be marching in the parade. After the parade we’ll be playing in a massed bands performance at Queens Park where the parade finishes.
We’ll then head to the Irish Club Hotel for two performances in the afternoon before heading back to Brisbane in our bus.
It’s going to be a huge day for us, but we’ll be doing what we love! Entertaining the crowds.
This is our first gig since we all returned from the 10-day Lorient Interceltique Festival in France and we’re looking forward to it.
We hope to see you there!

https://tcof.com.au/event/grand-central-floral-parade/

This coming Saturday 16th September is the Toowoomba Carnival of Flowers Grand Parade and we’ll be there!
🐝🌺🐝🌼🐝🌺🐝
We’ll head off from Brisbane early that morning in our band bus and we’ll be marching in the parade. After the parade we’ll be playing in a massed bands performance at Queens Park where the parade finishes.
We’ll then head to the Irish Club Hotel for two performances in the afternoon before heading back to Brisbane in our bus.
It’s going to be a huge day for us, but we’ll be doing what we love! Entertaining the crowds.
This is our first gig since we all returned from the 10-day Lorient Interceltique Festival in France and we’re looking forward to it.
We hope to see you there!

https://tcof.com.au/event/grand-central-floral-parade/

New Ross Pipe Band star at French music festival The New Ross and District Pipe Band has just returned from an amazing ten days at the famous Inter-Celtic Festival in Lorient in France.

Two million viewers watched the television recording of the Horizons Celtiques show that was televised in France on Friday night. It was recorded whilst we were performing in Lorient with the New Ross & District Pipe Band .
One million people attended the Festival Interceltique de Lorient over the 10 days we were there.

Près de 15% et plus de 2 Millions de téléspectateurs hier soir sur France 3 pour Le Grand Spectacle du Festival
Interceltique de Lorient présenté par Cyril Féraud. Merci d’avoir été si nombreux !

Throughout the festival this year we joined forces with the amazing Queensland Irish Association Pipe Band from .

Bruce and his band have been long friends of . Coming together made this years Festival Interceltique de Lorient even more special to partner and represent together.

Safe travelling to the Queensland band for your long home. We look forward to our next tune together! 🎶

☘️☘️

A number of our players boarding the bus to head back from Lorient to Paris CDG Airport for the trip back to Australia.

The Festival Interceltique de Lorient has been great and we're heading out of Lorient today after a fabulous 10 days. Some people are going back to Australia, others continuing on to the UK and other countries to make the most of our time so far away from home.
Thank you to the New Ross & District Pipe Band , it's been another great festival in Lorient with you. Thank you for having us for the Year of Ireland ☘️.

Friday:
It was our last day for gigs here in Lorient today.
The first playout was originally organised for three groups of players to perform onboard three boats as the sailed into the marina. However, we had fine rain all day so we could only board these boats tied up at the marina and play on them there. The crowd still enjoyed it.
After this we headed back to the main street area for a street parade that went into the market area where we formed up and played a concert set to the crowd.
Another great day here in Lorient!

Thursday night, our last Celtic Horizons performance at the stadium here in Lorient.
What a fantastic night with amazing performances by all!
We've had an absolutely amazing time here in Lorient performing with the New Ross & District Pipe Band for the Year of Ireland at this festival.

Thursday in Lorient:
We had a one hour lunchtime concert at Village Celts today to another huge crowd.
Later tonight will be the last Celtic Horizons performance at the arena.

Another very late night,
Celtic Horizons number 4 on Wednesday night. Only one more of these late night performances to go.
It's amazing how lucky we've been with the weather this time in Lorient, just perfect for night performances in an open arena.

Here's some photos from last night's Festival Interceltique de Lorient Celtic Horizons show at the arena.
Scroll through and you'll see a few photos of our pipeband mixed in with the New Ross & District Pipe Band from Ireland.
We have another Celtic Horizons show tonight (Wednesday) then the last one tomorrow night (Thursday,).

Here's a few more photos from our beach gig yesterday (Tuesday) at Guidel, 20km out of Lorient.

Tuesday, another great day for our pipeband, starting off with a late afternoon concert at the beach.
We headed out of Lorient at 4.30pm in a festival bus to Guidel, about 20km away, to do another concert.
Gorgeous spot, great crowd!

Some more photos from our street parade and performance yesterday (Monday).

We had another great day out performing in Lorient on Monday, not as busy as Sunday though.
We had a street parade for just our pipeband with the stepoff at 4.30pm near the marina and the streets were lined with so many people.
We finished off with a half hour concert performance to a very receptive crowd.
No Celtic Horizons show though as Monday is always a night off. Back to it on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday though, so we're heading for a few really late nights out performing again.