Pipe Dreams: Local Band Parties On St. Patrick’s Day
The Heathen Highlanders are a local bagpipe band celebrating their 20th anniversary, and for these guys, St. Paddy’s Day is bigger than Christmas. Dave Glad is the co-founder of the group, and he told Gephardt Daily that the Highlanders look forward to this day all year.
“Saint Patrick’s day is huge for us, it’s easily the busiest time of the year,” said Glad. “We have show after show after show. We do the Heathen Highlander’s Bar crawl every year. It’s a tradition.” The Highlanders travel from bar to bar throughout Salt Lake, with an entourage in tow.
“The most fun group we play for is these crowded bars,” Glad said. ” We get in here on Saint Patrick’s Day and it’s the one day a year that a bagpipe group gets to be like rock stars.” The band formed in 2005 when friends and fellow pipers Dave Glad, Michael Gibbs and Ian White met at Piper Down in Salt Lake City and played a few tunes.
“We came in and played, everything meshed, and it was a great time,” said Glad. ” So we thought ‘let’s put it together.’ We reached out some calls to some of our friends, and within a week we had the Heathen Highlanders.” The group prides themselves on having fun with their music above all else, but they do have a more serious side.
“When folks have things like weddings, funerals, serious events, they can call on any one of our members, we’ll put on a shirt and tie and do a nice formal performance as well,” Glad explained. Last year the Highlanders hit over a hundred bars during their crawl. Scottish Highland music may seem like a disconnect for an Irish holiday, but Glad explains that for many people it just feels right.
“The reason I think Scottish music has taken off here on the Irish holiday is that there’s so many people here in the Salt Lake area, and in Utah, that the cultures are mixed,” Glad explained. “Most of us are a melting pot of cultures. According to Glad, most people with Scottish lineage can find some Irish in the ancestry as well.
“So it all blends together for us,” Glad said with a smile and a twinkle in his eye, “And we’ve created our own culture and our own kind of celebration for the day.” The Heathen Highlanders are going to be out and about all day of St. Patrick’s Day, late into the night, playing and having a good time.
Follow the Highlanders’ Facebook page to see where and when you can party with the pipers: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Heathen-Highlanders/69728810324
