Now usually, playing in the beer tent at a contest is a momentous event. It usually means you’ve won.
In this case, it meant it was pouring rain in the morning and it was dry in there.
It is late afternoon in Glasgow, and it is still raining, and we are back in the flat at Victoria Hall drying off. The endless march past of bands on Glasgow Green is going on right about now, but given the results of the morning, we didn’t need to stick around.
There were 27 or so bands in the qualifier, including 13 or 14 in Hamilton’s heat. While the band played very well and was clearly better on the day than several other bands, there were also a lot of good ones in the contest – and the judges thought at least six of them had a better run than Hamilton. A couple of very well-known, very well-established bands also didn’t make it through.
On a positive note, our friends (and dorm mates this week) from Niagara Regional Police made it into the final 12.
So by 1:45, when the qualifier results were posted, band members were done for the day, and for the competitive season.
No word on the winner yet, but we suspect it will be one of the powerhouses from Ulster we got clobbered by a week ago.
Band leaders have not really had a chance to speak at length with the kids, who will be disappointed a lot of hard work didn’t quite get the desired results. On the other hand, this is a very young band and band leaders have been hearing all week from others about the need to hold them together and realize the group’s potential.
Tonight, the kids will scatter downtown for one last party. Most of the parents will towel off and lay low.
Sunday is a packing day, and Monday, most of us head home. Not the results we pipe-dreamed about, but a great experience nonetheless.
