Bagpipe and Hurdy Gurdy Day

Saturday's 20th Audlem Bagpipe and Hurdy Gurdy Day was a resounding success, as anyone who got within about 100 yards of the Shroppie Fly will have noticed.

Not only was the 'music room' packed with players, they spilled out into the 'billiards' room, onto the canalside, and even into the smokers' hide-away at the back of the pub.

Players came from nearby and from afar, with faces known and faces new from, in order of their distance travelled, Swanbach; Llanberis-ish; Oxford; London, and Vancouver – although Nathan was in the country anyway.

This year we were 'blessed' with nineteen Bagpipers, several of them bringing more than one instrument, and eleven Hurdy Gurdyists, some with more than one Gurdy.

If you weren't there, you missed something almost unforgettable when, occasionally, they all played the same tune.

Music from England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales was balanced by many from France, some from Belgium, Italy, and 'the colonies', and some from elsewhere, mainly from Planet Earth, although one or two may have come from places from which no man has ever returned.

According to the Players' Register, there were twenty-two other sorts of instruments 'in play' or on the 'list of things to be brought next time', so we can look forward to even more variety next year.

Whole-hearted thanks are due to the staff at the Shroppie Fly for their warm welcome and excellent service.

But mainly, those involved in organising – although that not quite the right word – the event, would like to thank all those who attended, whether as players, singers (always welcome to fill the odd silences that sometimes interrupt the flow of the music) and the visitors who just couldn't believe what they were hearing, and wondered what on earth was making such a wonderful sound – and had the strength of character to admit that they didn't actually know how a Hurdy Gurdy could produce notes of such a delicate timbre.

See you again next year.

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