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Like most years, the weekend surrounding St Patrick's Day was another busy one for the band.  Over two days, we played no less than 13 performances at three different locations:

• On Saturday afternoon, we performed three mini-concerts at the Lynn Haven Beef O'Brady's Family Irish Sports Bar.
• Later on Saturday evening, we moved down to Historic St. Andrews to the Granite Cafe.  This is an annual performance and parade from Granite Cafe to Uncle Ernie's Restaurant.  Like previous years, the audience was very enthusiastic and certainly very green.  Our location of our performance down at Uncle Ernie's seemed to suprise the patrons (as well as the Pipe  Major) but luckily everyone seemed to be in the St Patty's Day mood.
• Monday night we headed down to the Baytowne Wharf in Destin.  This was our second year at Baytowne Wharf and we had a great time yet again.  This year, in addition to our regular "strolling" performances around the village, we made three appearances on the main stage.  Savannah and Laura, our feature highland dancers, stole the show a few times over.  It was a long and late night but I think we all enjoyed ourselves.

An excellent party was had by our current band members, past band members, band supporters, families, and friends.  Entertainment included Alex reprising his "Address to a Haggis" and performances from the Wyndbreakers, Duel Christian, our favourite highland dancers and of course the Panama City Pipes & Drums.

We made a special presentation to John McIlroy as the band's founding Pipe Major. It was from John's kitchen that the late-night inebriated decision was made to create the Panama City Pipes & Drums.  John led the half dozen original members of the band  through its early years.

Now living in Tallahassee, John continues to perform with his wife and daughter as "The McIlorys."  They perform the Scottish and Irish music on Fiddle, Flute, Bagpipes, Bodhrans, Guitar and Vocals.  They have performed at Scottish festivals and events all over the world.

It was breezy day at the PC Highland Games this year. Despite the cool breeze, it was rather sunny and many band members are suffering from facial sunburn and chapped lips as a result.

The band provided two performances and joined into two massed band performances.  Compare to recent years, we had a huge massed pipe band as two other bands came out to participate: Emerald Coast Pipes and Drums and McGuire's Pipe Band.  It was certainly great to have these other bands out with us - both to hear their great music and also to chat amongst ourselves.

Between great pipe bands, Scottish eggs, bouncy castles, great celtic musicians, british cars, and caber tossing; we all had a really great time during the festival.

For the second year, the Panama City Pipes & Drums have been invited to perform at the Chautauqua Winter Assembly in DeFuniak Springs, FL.  This year we brought along the entire band for an afternoon of performances and a parade.

Only a day after a series of record-breaking storms that flooded much of the Florida Panhandle, we enjoyed a beautiful day around Lake DeFuniak.  We played three short concerts behind the Chautauqua Hall of Brotherhood, marched a one mile parade around the lake, and then finished off the day by providing music as the Assembly entered the church for the final event of the weekend. 

This past weekend, our Canadian Snowbird members hosted a Farewell Beach Party to properly send off Iain before he leaves for Afghanistan.  Iain is a Technical Sergeant with the USAF and is deploying as part of NATO’s International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).  This is Iain’s third deployment within three years.

Between his deployment and additional responsibilities, Iain also tendered his resignation from the band.  Iain has been with the band for a number of years now and has done much to help the band along.  Within the band, Iain has been the Pipe Sergeant, Quartermaster, a pipe instructor, a highland dancing piper, and a friend at all.

We had a great party down on the beach.  We enjoyed pizza, salads, cake, some adult beverages,   and we even piped down the sun at the end of the day.

See ya soon Iain and stay safe!

The Panama City Pipes and Drums was proud to present a BURNS SUPPER that celebratef the life and spirit of Scotland's national bard, Robert "Rabbie" Burns.

We had the whole sh-bang: haggis, highland dancers, Address to the Haggis, the pipe band, good food, and an overall great night.

We played to a great crowd at the Gulf Beach Presbyterian Church as part of their 2008 Concert Series.  The stage set-up was a bit strange but we managed to make the most of the little space we had to perform our part of the concert.

Our band opened for "Kid Dutch and his New Orleans Buddies".  Kid Dutch et al. play some greate creole, jazz, blues and pop favorites.  The event also has a featured visual artist each week. Our featured artist was Heather Parker.