The Delta Police Pipe Band held a pair of Robbie Burns dinners last weekend, marking the 15th straight year it has sold out both nights.
This year’s total of 870 guests lays claim, according to the pipe band, to being the largest traditional Robbie Burns dinner celebration in the world.
The dinners were held last Friday and Saturday nights at the Sacred Heart Church hall in Ladner, and an Internet check of Burns’ celebrations internationally could not find any other organization that could match these attendance totals.
Led by pipe major Cliff Fournier and drum major Bill O’Donnell (both in their first year in these positions) and consisting of 26 pipers and 20 drummers, the band played three sets of tunes with one of the highlights being the singing of Scotland the Brave by the band’s own singing and guitar group, The Deltones.
The band performed many of the tunes it played at the Netherlands International Tattoo last September that celebrated the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Holland by Canadian forces.
As usual, the band’s own Regimental dancers brought down the house with a traditional sword dance and Highland fling combination.
Other acts included the Shannon Highland Dancers, master piper Alan Walters, who was accompanied in a duet with band piper Zhongxi (“Jonesy”) Wu playing the Chinese double-reeded horn, the suona.
Delta Mayor Lois Jackson and Delta police Chief Neil Dubord were given the unique band toast for their support throughout the year.
The crowd then danced the night away with the music of The Earthmen until the wee hours of the morning.
The band thanks the Delta Police Department, the Corporation of Delta, the Ladner and Tsawwassen branches of the Royal Canadian Legion, and its many guests and friends for their continued support of the band over the years.
