The Cochrane Pipe Band is celebrating its 20th anniversary when it hosts its yearly Robbie Burns night on Jan. 19.
"I guess it's kind of hard to believe, since we started from scratch back in 1998. Learning as older adults is always tricky as well as gathering enough people to form a band ... here we are 20 years later, with over 20 people in our band that is going strong. We have a lot of people from other communities such as Calgary, Canmore, Kananaskis that join our band, but since we're a recreational that doesn't compete very often, it's what a lot of people are looking for," said band manager Susan Flowers.
"I think we've been able to keep the band together for this long because we have a lot of fun with it. We obviously work hard too and we try to look good, but we aren't competitive so we understand at our ages as older adults that we're just enjoying the music, culture and wanting to share it with other people."
"We're constantly improving but we won't ever be a number one band in Scotland or anything, which is OK. We do it because we love it."
Flowers said the group is excited to once again be celebrating the famous Scottish poet Robbie Burns as well as the Scottish culture.
"We're really excited because it's our 20th anniversary. We actually sold out the event, which is awesome because we did it all through word of mouth and very little advertising. The excitement comes through with us and promoting it through the community in order to share it with people living in Cochrane. People are interested to come and see what we're up to. I think history bodes well for us because we've hosted really good events in the past and we have a good reputation for having a good party," Flowers said.
It’s fun to celebrate (events like the Robbie Burns night) and listen to Scottish music. Our band works really hard learning new tunes and to put on a show … and they have toasts scheduled throughout the evening to the lads and lassies, which is followed by something called immortal memories where people have the chance to talk about Robbie Burns and some of his life happenings. It’s a really important night for the Scottish people."
A traditional roast beef dinner with haggis will also be served.
Flowers said the band usually uses the celebration as a fundraiser to help offset costs of costumes and equipment, but this year members are looking to organize a trip for the group.
"We'd like to go on a trip and get some training this year," Flowers said. "We're looking at Ontario in the summertime, but we're not going to make a lot of money for that through ticket sales ... that trip will happen mostly through the silent auction we're hosting (that evening) as well. We're excited and glad to look back at our history ... the legion helped get us up and running before we became our own nonprofit and having people so committed to the group helps as well."
The first Robbie Burns Night was held on July 21, 1801 when Burns’s friends gathered on the fifth anniversary of his death.
Merchants who were born in Ayrshire, some of whom had known the famous poet, founded the first still existing Burns Club in Greenock in 1801. They held the first Burns supper on what they originally thought was his birthday on Jan. 29 in 1802, but the following year, they discovered the Ayr parish records noted his date of birth was actually Jan. 25, 1759. Since then, suppers and celebrations have been held on or around Jan. 25.
