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A pipe dream is being realised by four South Canterbury Highland band players.
Heading to Glasgow with their Nelson counterparts next month to compete in the World Pipe Band Championships are South Canterbury Highland Pipe Band players Tiffany Gilchrist, William McArthur, Kieran McGarrity and Charlotte McArthur.
The group will be travelling to compete in grade two with The Celtic Pipe Band from Nelson, along with around 200 other bands from around the world.
Pipe major William McArthur said initially the band would have to go through a qualifying heat and then "hopefully" be able to compete in the final round.
"The last time the band went over they qualified and got fourth place overall," Mr McArthur said.
He said the players were hoping to come home with some "more silverware" this time.
The group of four were all integral parts of the South Canterbury band, teaching, leading and managing different sections of the band.
Mr McArthur said there was a special relationship between the South Canterbury and Nelson bands.
On occasions they combined their juvenile bands for competitions and also helped each other with training and playing at functions and parades, he said.
"This isn’t something that every pipe band does."
"It’s really awesome to be able to combine both of these bands so that we can support our youth and foster a healthy relationship between bands."
Every year over 8000 of the world’s best pipers and drummers assemble for the World Pipe Band Championships.
The event this year would take place at Glasgow Green, August 14-15.
There were more events packed into their itinerary, including competing at Perth Highland Games and taking part in the "Piping Live" event around Glasgow where they would perform in various spots around the city.
But a good chunk of time would be spent rehearsing with the band.
While the band was based in Nelson, there were a number of players from around New Zealand, Australia and South Africa.
So there would be full focus on getting everyone performing as well together as they could before they competed.
Tiffany Gilchrist grew up in Nelson and originally learnt to drum through the Celtic Band. She said it was really exciting to be able to do the trip with her home/family band again.
And to do it with her family and teammates from the South Canterbury band made it all that much better.
The team hope to one day be able to take their band to Nelson and give their students and members the same opportunities.
Until then, she hoped this inspired them to keep working hard. — Allied Media