A short, curated list of major US Highland Games and pipe band competitions worth knowing about, plus the regional associations that maintain the full schedules.
We are a navigator, not a calendar service. The full schedule lives with the regional associations. What follows is a short list of the games most worth your first weekend.
The biggest piping events on the calendar over the next three months across the United States. Highland games, solo contests, and a workshop weekend.
Now in its 51st year, among the largest Scottish festivals in the Northeast. Three days at Loon Mountain with EUSPBA-sanctioned piping and drumming, solo and band competition across grades, heavy athletics, and a Friday-night ceilidh.
nhscot.org →Bethlehem's long-running Celtic festival. Saturday, September 26 carries a Grade 4 pipe band contest and a drum major contest, which is a good look at the grade where many local community bands compete.
celticfest.org →The Front Range's Highland games, with WUSPBA-sanctioned piping and drumming competition. The closest competition for readers in the Mountain West this fall.
scottishgames.org →North Carolina's fall games, with the main day on Saturday, October 3. Pipe band competition plus individual piping and drumming, on the EUSPBA calendar.
carolina-highlandgames.com →An EUSPBA solo piping competition on Saturday, October 3, running from Novice and Junior all the way up to Grade I. Solo only, so it is a good place to hear individual players up close.
hfccs.org →The 43rd running of an invitational contest for ten of the top amateur solo pipers, with a judges' recital on Friday, October 9. Not a Highland games: an indoor evening and day of serious solo piping.
nicol-brown.org →Two days on the California coast with bagpiping and drumming competition alongside heavy athletics, drum majoring, and Highland dance. Gates run 9am to 5pm both days and a ticket is good for either one.
seasidehighlandgames.org →The 54th running of one of the Southeast's largest games, set below the granite face of Stone Mountain. EUSPBA-sanctioned pipe bands and solo piping, heavy athletics, and Friday and Saturday evening dances. A strong close to the outdoor games season.
smhg.org →A smaller festival in the Sierra foothills near Yosemite, with WUSPBA-sanctioned pipe and drum competition.
yosemitecelticfestival.com →The 65th running of the Texas gathering, and one of the last outdoor games of the year. All piping, drumming, and band events run on Saturday, November 14, with solos from 8am and band and quartet events after the noon parade.
saladomuseum.org →A weekend of classes for pipers, snare, tenor, and bass drummers, and drum majors, at beginner, intermediate, and advanced levels. The staff includes Stuart Liddell, J. Reid Maxwell, and Steven McWhirter. Friday brings an instructor recital, Saturday a full day of classes and a ceilidh, and Sunday a closing morning of classes. Registration is open, with early pricing through October 11.
poconoworkshop.com →Long-running outdoor games and major piping championships where bagpipes are central to the event, listed by when they usually fall in the year. Exact dates shift a little from year to year, so confirm on each event's site. The precise dates for what is coming up next are in the Next 90 Days list above.
Single-day EUSPBA-sanctioned games in the Carolina foothills with a Friday-night Great Scot Parade in downtown Greenville. Solo piping, drumming, and pipe band competitions across grade levels.
gallabrae.com →The Chicago Scots Scottish Festival and Highland Games, two days over Friday and Saturday in mid-June. MWPBA-sanctioned, with what the host bills as North America's largest pipe band competition at its center, plus solo piping and drumming, Highland dance, and clan tents.
chicagoscots.org →The largest Scottish festival in Utah, three days at the Utah State Fairpark in Salt Lake City. WUSPBA-sanctioned piping and drumming competition, Highland dance, heavy athletics, and clan tents. A regular stop for top Highland Games athletes from around the world.
utahscots.org →One of the longest-running US solo piping championships, hosted by the US Piping Foundation. EUSPBA-sanctioned, indoor venue, amateur and professional grades all day into the evening final. Worth knowing about as the calendar-year counterpart to the outdoor games on this page: same world, different shape.
uspipingfoundation.org →One of the largest Scottish festivals in the United States, four days at MacRae Meadows on Grandfather Mountain. Pipers travel from around the world to compete at every level from beginner to professional, with the EUSPBA-sanctioned competition spread across Saturday and Sunday.
gmhg.org →A long-running single-day event in western Pennsylvania, EUSPBA-sanctioned. Solo piping at 9 a.m. by grade level, pipe bands and drum majors through the afternoon, massed bands at the closing ceremony.
ligonierhighlandgames.org →Labor Day weekend at the Waukesha County Expo Center. MWPBA-sanctioned Champion Supreme contest with amateur solo, quartet, and band competitions, set within the broader Wisconsin Highland Games festival. Friday-night opening ceremonies and ceilidh, Saturday solo and band competition, Sunday a full festival day.
wisconsinscottish.org →The largest Scottish gathering in the western United States, run by the Caledonian Club of San Francisco over Labor Day weekend. WUSPBA-sanctioned piping and drumming alongside athletics, dance, and clan tents.
thescottishgames.com →A three-day mountain-resort festival with EUSPBA-sanctioned piping and drumming, a very large clan presence, and one of the most scenic backdrops on the games calendar. Easy day trip from Boston.
nhscot.org →Traditionally the third weekend in October. A well-attended Southeastern games with EUSPBA-sanctioned piping and drumming, Highland dance, athletics, and Scottish harp and fiddle competitions.
smhg.org →
Glasgow Green, Scotland. The 2026 championships ran on August 14 and 15, and Simon Fraser University took Grade 1 for the first time since 2009, with Field Marshal Montgomery second and Boghall and Bathgate Caledonia third. We looked at who actually wins the Worlds across every contest since 1947, and at the people who set an alarm for five in the morning to watch this one.
The championships return to Glasgow Green on Friday and Saturday, August 13 and 14, 2027. Two days of competition with around 8,000 pipers and drummers taking part, run by the Royal Scottish Pipe Band Association. The stream goes out free, which is how most of the world watches it.
Most US pipers will never compete here, and that is fine. But if you can get to Glasgow on a mid-August weekend even as a spectator, it is the experience nothing else on this calendar can match.
rspba.org →For the full contest schedule in your region, the regional associations are the source of truth. They sanction the competitions, publish the rules, and keep the calendars current. Find your region below.
The Eastern seaboard from Maine to Florida and inland to roughly the Mississippi. Largest of the three US associations by member count. Sanctions most of the games on this page. The "Compete" tab on their site lists the full sanctioned event calendar.
euspba.org/compete →The American West. Washington, Oregon, California, Nevada, Arizona, and the Mountain states. Split into a Northern Branch (Northern California and Northern Nevada) and a Southern Branch. Maintains a contest calendar across both branches plus its own AGM and championship weekends.
wuspba.org/events →The American Midwest. Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Wisconsin, and Arkansas. Sanctions contests across the region and hosts Winter Storm Weekend in Kansas City each January, a major indoor competition and concert event.
mwpba.org/contests-2026 →The continental umbrella. Ties together the three US associations above plus six Canadian associations (Alberta, Atlantic Canada, British Columbia, Ontario, Prairie Manitoba, and Saskatchewan). Useful if you are crossing the border or are unsure which US region applies to your address.
anapba.org →The major games above are a starter list, not a directory. There are dozens of regional Highland Games and Celtic festivals across the United States every year, plus St. Patrick's Day parades, Tartan Day events in early April, local Caledonian society gatherings, and pub crawl performances that never make the association calendars at all. If you want to find every event near you, the regional associations are step one. Local Scottish or Irish cultural societies are step two.
We have also intentionally left out indoor solo piping competitions hosted by individual schools and colleges, mini- band contests, and most one-off concerts. That layer of the calendar moves too fast for a static page like this one to stay current. The pipes|drums events feed and Bagpipe News both keep up better than we can.
The dates above were verified in late April 2026. If you are reading this much later and the dates look off, treat the official site links as the source of truth, not us.
Highland games, contests, concerts, pipe-band gatherings -- if you know one we missed or got wrong, tell us. We refresh this page periodically.
Date-rot is the curse of an events page. Suggestions like yours are how we keep this list current.