It's time to pack their bags - including the kinds that make music - and head out once again.
The SFU Pipe Band is gearing up for the annual World Bagpipe Championship in Glasgow, Scotland in mid-August.
The 46-member band has placed in the top three at the competition for the past 12 years: last year, they placed third after two consecutive years in the top spot.
The band is wrapping up its summer performance schedule and finishing final practice sessions - including, if weather permits, a practice oustide Horizons Restaurant on Burnaby Mountain tomorrow (July 28) at 7 p.m.
The group is welcoming some new members to the band who are well known in the pipe band world: Robert Mathieson, formerly a pipe major with Scottish rivals The House of Edgar Shotts and Dykehead Pipe Band; former Toronto police lead drummer Doug Stronach; drummer Owen Russell with the 78th Fraser Highlanders from Minnesota; Nicola Purvis of the Auckland and District Pipe Band of New Zealand.
As well, piper Kevin McLean from Maple Ridge, who worked his way up to the Grade 1 band after first learning to play at an SFU summer camp, will be making his first appearance at the worlds.
"The fact that we've consistently stayed at the top of our game means we're doing something right," says Pipe Sergeant Jack Lee. "And yet we can't take that fact for granted either. ... Our strength continues to be our dedication, commitment, and hard practice."
Members preparing for this year's competition include a core of local pipers and drummers while others hail from Calgary, Ottawa, several U.S. cities and as far off as Ireland and Scotland.
The World Bagpipe Championships are set for Aug. 13 and will be streamed live by the BBC from the Grade One arena at Glasgow Green. More than 8,000 pipers and a crowd of 40,000 are expected. The coverage can be accessed at bbc.co.uk/worlds.
The SFU band began competing at the Worlds in 1983 and has claimed six championships in 1995, 1996, 1999, 2001, 2008 and 2009.
The band will celebrate its 30th anniversary with a concert at New York's Lincoln Centre. Formed in 1966, it was originally made up of pipers and drummers from the neighboring City of Port Moody Pipe Band, and formally became the Simon Fraser University Pipe Band in 1981.
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