By: Dani Carmack, News Writer
On August 15, the SFU Pipe Band took home first place at the 2026 World Pipe Band Championships, a competition held annually in Glasgow. The band is now the reigning Grade 1 world champion for the first time since 2009.
This marks the seventh time the SFU Pipe Band has won this title since its foundation in 1966. Pipe major Alan Bevan told CBC, “It’s the top prize in the world of pipe bands.” The SFU team came in first out of 13 teams competing in the Grade 1 category, the most prestigious grade in the pipe band’s nine-grade system.
“One of the things that has been very prominent about the SFU Pipe Band over generations is this feeling of family.”
— Rob MacNeil, SFU Pipe Band president
In an interview with The Peak, Pipe Band Society president Rob MacNeil said, “One of the things that has been really prominent about the SFU Pipe Band over generations is this feeling of family,” said MacNeil. MacNeil shared that beyond this feeling, several families also play and compete together. For example, one of the most veteran SFU pipers and SFU’s pipe major (Bonnie and Alan Bevan) are married with two sons, and all four of them won the world championship together.
Beyond family bonds, the band also has a large number of women — representation that MacNeil says is not common in other top Scottish pipe bands. “We eclipse them so much there. And I think what it says, especially when we would be messaging potential parents and their children to start our junior band program, is that you can tell your [children] that they can be anything that they want to be if they put their heart into it,” said MacNeil.
MacNeil shared that a major challenge for the band is the lack of local competition for the SFU band. “Over this past year we had not faced any competition until we got to the World Pipe Band Championships,” said MacNeil. He shared that to combat this challenge, his team performs their Highland games, which happen close to the “major championships in Scotland,” and posts them on YouTube and Facebook — “almost as if we are competing at the same time as the bands in Scotland,” said MacNeil.
This year, the team had a fresh set of ears to bring something new to the band’s performances. “A lot of people know us as taking a lot of traditional tunes and putting a more contemporary and special SFU stamp on that type of music,” said MacNeil. Last September, former pipe sergeant and current SFU Pipe Band society treasurer Jack Lee retired from his position as pipe sergeant after 50 years of service. Now, new pipe sergeant Craig Sutherland “came in and was working very closely with Alan about some of the player’s techniques, sounds and essentially helped to change some particular elements,” shared MacNeil.
Although MacNeil said all of the band members had the hunger to win this championship, their victory will not change how the team moves forward. “One of the things that we will continue to do is always hold ourselves to a high standard, looking at what the competition caliber is in Scotland each year,” said MacNeil. The band is planning to continue using their current strategy for future competitions. “We’ll continue to [post] our own videos there and [make] certain that we’re doing the things that made us successful,” said MacNeil.
