Focus Archive
Focus
Do Worlds Need Freshened Up?
The very first survey on the Piping Portal focused on the World Pipe Band Championships and threw up some interesting responses.
- A total of 66% of people responding to the survey were Pipers. 28% were drummers with the rest enthusiasts.
- Of this number 83% were male and 17% female.
- 81% were between 26 and 60 with that figure evenly split between the 26 - 40 and 41 – 60 age groups. 9% were under 18, 5% 19 – 25 and the rest over 60.
- One of the most surprising responses in the survey was the geography question. 57% of you are from England and 14% from Scotland. 8% were from the USA, with Canada, Northern Ireland and Australia all receiving around the 5% mark. Pleasingly, 3% were from Europe which meets the Portal’s goal of reaching as much of the piping and drumming world as possible.
- 38% of you have visited the Worlds more than five times. 28% visited less than five but more than once. 12% have visited once with an encouraging 22% visiting every year.
Moving on to the more detailed questions it is clear that many of you think the World Championships could do with a little freshening up and perhaps some new impetus.
- Just over 45% of you think facilities (including merchandising, food and drink, toilets) at the Worlds are poor. 29% think the facilities are adequate with only 23% thinking they are good. 3% thought the facilities were excellent. We can take from this that 74% of our readers think that facilities at the Worlds are either poor or just adequate.
- Marketing and promotion of the event did little better. 59% of you think that marketing and promotion is poor. 27% think it’s adequate. 14% think it’s good with no-one agreeing that it is excellent.
- The RSPBA have scored a goal with the news that this year’s Worlds will be broadcast on the BBC. 100% of you thought this was a positive development.
- We asked you whether the Worlds should be held outdoors or indoors. A whopping 83% of you think it should remain outdoors.
- Finally, 82% of readers think that bands at the Worlds should continue playing in a circle with 18% voting for bands to play in a line facing the audience.
We’d like to thank readers for taking part in this survey. We’ve put our findings to the RSPBA and are awaiting their responses which we will post on the site as soon as we get them.
Please give us your thoughts on the findings in the Forum section.