The Cochrane Pipe Band is looking to celebrate the Celtic culture when it puts on its Cochrane Celtic Connections event Sept. 29 at the Cochrane Lions Event Centre as part of Alberta Culture Days. The event will feature bagpipes, Scottish dancing and displays of the Celtic culture including food such as haggis and pudding, while the community is encouraged to wear any Celtic attire as the Pipe Band will be wearing the Cochrane tartan. Pipe Band manager Susan Flowers is hoping the Town of Cochrane will come celebrate the event and she's hoping it will maybe spark an interest among young people in town. "We want people to celebrate the Celtic history, music and things that go along with Celtic culture. So we of course play the pipes and drums," Flowers said. "We'd like to recruit people who'd consider learning and hopefully we get some younger people in the band." "We got this grant through Alberta Culture Days to put on this pop up event and so we're going to have booths with history, arts and selling local wears that are Celtic, then we'll have the Pipe Band play at two different times throughout the day, we're going to have highland and Scottish country dancing and then we're going to give out tastes of haggis for those who haven't tried it before ... we just want to celebrate the Celtic ways. It will be a fun day." Flowers also believes that it's important for the Town of Cochrane to experience the Celtic culture. "I think it's very important to many people, just to keep the history alive and keep the music going into the future ... we have a good sized band right now, but we'd like to keep recruiting so it can continue to be that size," Flowers said. "I hope people enjoy themselves and just have some deep emotions come out from listening to the bag pipes." The event is scheduled to go from 11 a.m. until 4 p.m. with the pipe band performing at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. with other events sprinkled in throughout the day.
