I participated in Massed Bands for the first time! Chicago 2024

On Friday June 14, my dad and I traveled to Chicago for a bagpipe competition, with solo competitions on Friday and band contests on Saturday. I'm a piper in the Greater Midwest pipe band in grade 2, and we practice in the Battle Creek area of Michigan. I also compete in grade 2 as a solo piper. For the nonpipers listening to this, there are at least 5 different grades in piping. Grade 5 is where you start, and then it goes progressively down from there to grade 1, which is the highest grade. After grade 1 is professional.
What happened was, because of the worst cicada epedemic in the area, and because I hate bugs, I ended up sitting out of the band contests when the Greater Midwest pipe band competed in both the "March/Strathspey/Reel" event and the "Medley" event, but I somewhat wanted that option anyway. Even though my playing itself was really awesome compared to last year, just the possibility of me being startled by the cicadas was enough to have me end up sitting out, which is what I actually felt more comfortable doing anyways. Being cut from a band, I learned the hard way that day, isn't always about your playing. It can sometimes be an environmental issue too. But, a slight advantage to that is that I got to talk to yet another blind friend of mine named Katrina who loves bagpipes so much she really wants to learn how to play them! Since she's from near the area in Illinois, this was the perfect opportunity for her and I to physically meet each other for the first time! She found me on a Facebook page I created specifically for blind pipers, since I got introduced to another blind piper (Abbey Finklea) from Craig Downie who's the piper in the band "Enter the Haggis". So I thought it would be a good idea to make a Facebook page for blind pipers, or blind people interested in learning bagpipes, and that's how I met Katrina. And no, don't worry. Even if she doesn't want to be my girlfriend anyway, I think our age-gap is too much. I'm only 28 and she's 6 years older than me. So no, we're only friends for life.
Anyway, because Katrina and I were talking over the two band contests, I figured it wouldn't be the best idea to upload them to KZbin. However, since this is probably my only opportunity in my entire life to participate in what they call "Massed Bands", I ended up doing that!!!!!!!!!! As I told one favorite singer I like,
all the pipers and drummers play the seemingly boring simple tunes at the same time. Usually when they do something called Countermarching (look it up, can't explain it since it's a visual thing), it's too dangerous and there's no room for a guide. But this time, no countermarching ("at the hault" instead). So, that means I could finally participate because there wasn't much marching involved anyways!!!!!! MASSED BANDS WAS TOTAL FUN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The group that my band was in was the first group to march onto the field playing "Highland Laddie", and the other remaining two groups played "Green Hills of Tyroll" based on a piece by Rossini from an opera!, then the third group plays the most boring tune ever: "Wings". Then for the first time we all played "Bonnie Dundee" together, then "Amazing Grace" led by the St. Thomas Alumni Pipe Band in grade 1. Because they were super far in front of us, which also applies to the Drum Major (command-yeller), it was super surprising how quiet it was compared to our instruments, compared to how loud it is when I listen from up close. This finally gave me an idea about just how huge Massed Bands can be!!!!!!!
Because we were so far away from where the audience crowd was, I literally couldn't make out much in terms of the announcements that were done over the speakers. So, I have no idea what bands got what place. Even worse, despite me sitting out because of the cicadas, unfortunately because all the bands were in different circles making it impossible to record each and every individual band, we sadly ended up having to miss the other pipe bands. It's sad but true, I swear I wish I could've recorded the other bands' contests at such a huge contest site, given that there were about 50 bands who showed up to this contest.
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