The Red Deer and District Pipe Band will play music at several different venues to help central Albertans celebrate St. Patty’s Day.
The following locations will be stops for the pipe band’s annual St. Patty’s Day Pub Crawl on Friday (times listed are approximate):
— Cheers Pub at 4:15 p.m.
— The Hideout at 5 p.m.
— Gasoline Alley Farmers’ Market at 6:30 p.m.
— Red Hart Brewing at 7 p.m.
— Murph’s Pub and Grill at 7:45 p.m.
— Chillabongs Bar and Grill at 8:30 p.m.
— Bo’s Bar and Stage at 9:15 p.m.
— Murph’s Pub and Grill at 10 p.m.
“This is something we look forward to every year. It’s a lot of fun,” said Arnie MacAskill, vice-president of the Red Deer and District Pipe Band.
“We have a number of pubs that we go to – we charge them $200 for a set and we get them to allow us to pass the hat around (for donations). This is one of the biggest fundraisers for the pipe band all year, so it’s pretty important to us.”
The band will be playing some of its regular parade tunes during the sets, MacAskill explained.
“Going to the pubs and taking in the cheers and clapping just makes you feel really good,” he said.
“It’ll be a bit of a smaller band performing early in the night, but we’ll have the whole pipe band out – probably 10 pipers and 10 drummers or something like that.”
Between the $200 set cost and the donations, MacAskill estimated the band makes about $3,000 through the Pub Crawl each year.
“That money goes into our operational account, which is for equipment, materials – pipers seem to go through a lot of reeds – and that kind of thing,” he said.
“We’re heading to Ireland and Scotland next summer, so this will help us out. We’ll be in Ireland for a week and about 10 days in Scotland.”
This will be the band’s first pub crawl in a couple of years due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“During COVID we didn’t even have practices for almost two years,” he said, adding he wants more people to know there’s a pipe band in town.
“Maybe we’ll get a few more pipers or drummers who need a few more lessons, or some who are adept already. It’s great to get the word out.”
For more information on the Red Deer and District Pipe Band, visit www.reddeerdistrictpipeband.ca.
sean.mcintosh@reddeeradvocate.com
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