2025 Highland Games Season - President's Report

The 2025 Numbers

A very successful 2025 outdoor competition season came to a close with the North Lanark Highland Games in late August. This past Summer saw the PPBSO sanction nine (9) highland games with 408 unique band and solo competitions.

There were 3,508 individual solo contest entries in 2025 which is a 10% increase over 2024 - with most of the increased numbers being youth entries.  This bodes well for our organization.

Our Amazing PPBSO Judges

53 Judges participated in judging highland games assignments in 2025, including 2 overseas judges: Richard Parkes and Ian Duncan at the Glengarry Highland Games in Maxville.

Of the 408 competition judging assignments in 2025, 401 (98%) were filled by PPBSO judges.  A big thank you to our amazing PPBSO judging panel for this great accomplishment.

This year our Music Committee accredited 5 new judges - all of which were approved by the board to be added to the PPBSO judging panel. Excellent work by the music committee!

Three of the new judges were announced earlier this summer with the most recent two new additions being Dave Fenton and Kevin Dugas.

Membership

The PPBSO 2025 membership peaked at 1,115 which is back on par with the best pre-covid years. This is also good news.

2026 Competitions

We are pleased to announce that on 27th June 2026 the Kingsville Highland Games are planning a return to the PPBSO competition schedule.

The unique setting of the Hamilton Gathering was a great success this year and if we can find volunteer members to form a games committee we hope that this competition will be back in 2026. If you are interested in joining this committee, please get in touch.

Piping & Drumming Teachers Symposium – Youth Development Committee

Plans are in full swing for a teacher’s symposium this Fall on November 1st - so please save the date - there's a great line-up of speakers.

The symposium is being organized by the PPBSO Youth Development Committee and will be open and free to all current teachers of piping and drumming.

This event will be held in Guelph and will have in-person and online options. Committee chair, Tyler Bridge, will be releasing further details shortly - please stand-by.

The PPBSO has also applied for a Trillium grant to run a youth summer school in 2026.  If we don’t get the grant, we still hope to run a summer camp or similar next year.

Ontario Youth Pipe Band

The Ontario Youth Pipe Band had a great year with increased membership and a performance at the Fergus Scottish Festival tattoo in August. We would like to thank all the members and the teachers who made this fun project a success.

Champion Supreme Awards

The 2025 Champion Supreme Awards “Ceilidh” will be held on Saturday November 22^nd at the Scottish Rite in Hamilton.  The evening event will be less formal this year with a ceilidh band providing entertainment.

Please plan to come out and celebrate our winners.

2025 PPBSO AGM

Save the date for the 2025 AGM which has been set for Saturday December 6th. More details to follow.

Thank You

I would like to take this time to thank our Operations Manager, Sharon Duthart, who keeps this organization moving behind the scenes, our senior stewards Rob McGregor and Ed Johnston, our committee members and judges and our dedicated volunteers.

And finally, a special thanks to all of our dedicated musicians - you are what make this organization flourish.

Malkie Bow

President

PPBSO