Bagpipe & Hurdy-Gurdy Day

This report written by Geoff Turner, a Hurdy-Gurdy playing, Whistle playing, Bag-piper from over the border in Shropshire.

Once again, the Audlem Bagpipe and Hurdy-Gurdy day proved a great success. Over 5 hours of solid drone music made its 16th year, in the words of hurdy-gurdy maker Neil Brook, who came to Cheshire instead of to the Hurdy-Gurdy weekend at Otley in Yorkshire, "The best yet".

About 30 musicians with a wide range of hurdy-gurdies and bagpipes ranging from Bulgarian to Irish and quite a few countries in between, played a non-stop session of music from many countries, turning the heads of everyone walking past "The Bridge" on the canal towpath.

Musicians travelled long distances, from North and South Wales, Derbyshire, Yorkshire, Lancashire etc. to join the Bridge's regular cast of Monday night musicians in the longest-running drone-music session in the country.

A big thank-you must go Vicky and Gary for hosting the event for the second time. The chip butties were lovely!

The photo is the only one I could find with both a bag-pipe and a hurdy-gurdy clearly visible. The fact that Denise Quail is playing the former with the latter on her knee is an extra bonus.

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