Pipe Band Kilts

[Pleater]

There is a pipe and drum band which appears at the week long folk festival I attend, and although they all wear the same tartan is is in different shades, some kilts are pleated to the stripe and some to the sett, plus they are of different qualities, some are very heavy, some are thin PV, and the size of the sett is different.

Personally I think that what they have looks more irregular than having different tartans, as they are obviously intending to be the same, and failing.

With the cost of kilts and bagpipes, or a good big drum, it must be quite an undertaking to get the uniform and instrument.

[Wompet]

A big mess? Not necessarily. A distraction? Yes.
There was one band at the Edinboro PA Highland Games this year where everyone wore the same uniform - except one guy who wore a different tartan. And as much as I was concentrating on what they were playing, my attention kept going back to that guy - why wasn't he in the band uniform?

The only other examples I've seen were a band at the Fort Erie Celtic Festival a couple of years ago - half the band was pleated to sett, and the other half to stripe (there's a picture of that here somewhere); and again at Edinboro - the Erepa Grotto Shriners - their kilts were all the same, but the drummers wore red & white argyle hose, and the pipers wore red & black. One of those little details that registers in the back of your mind, and nags at you until you realize it.

[ccga3359]

Personally I think it would look odd.