Pipes & Drums of Erepa Grotto

Text Box: —Celebrating over 60 years of excellence— the pipes and drums of Erepa Grotto

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Erepa Grotto Pipes and Drums

April 2012

The Tartan Ball is done and St. Patty’s Day is over! Time for a breather….haha I wish. With the two biggest events of the year behind us there’s only one thing to do now, get ready for the parade season. Each summer the band does about a dozen performances all over PA, OH, and NY. Starting with the March of Dimes “March for Babies” April 29^th. It’s a great way to start the season every year. It’s a great cause that involves a lot of great people, and also….it’s short! No reason to rush into 5 mile parades in 100° heat, better to start out in April when it’s cool and only go a few hundred yards. As piper Don Adams would say, “We don’t want to peak too soon.” May will bring Memorial Day. We’ve received a few parade invites and haven’t decided on a location yet, but if I was a betting man, I’d put my money on Fairview. It’s a tradition to take part in Fairview, a few of our guys live out there and there’s always a picnic afterwards. The schedules not set for the rest of the summer yet but the parade invites are rolling in so once all the paperwork is in order I’m sure a definite schedule will be posted.

The Tartan Ball was a great success. This year’s anniversary extravaganza, celebrating 60 years of Erepa Grotto Tartan Ball and 25 years of the 87^th Cleveland Pipes & Drums went great. We had record setting attendance and the compliments from the crowd have been great. Many patrons who attend every year said it was the best they’ve seen in ages! Thanks for the kind words everyone, now it’s time to get into planning mode so we can top it next year.

St. Patty’s Day fell on a Saturday this year. Is this good or bad, I do not know…or maybe just don’t remember. The morning started with the St. Patrick’s Day Parade in lovely downtown Erie. The weather was better than I’ve ever played before and the crowd was out in full force, as well as some of Erie’s finest. Immediately following the parade was the pub crawl. All I in all the band hit eight Irish bars and was home safe and in bed by 11:00 PM. Not bad for starting before lunch. We had great feedback and many places said they wanted us to back multiple times next year. If the guys can hold up we’ll see, but boy is that a long, hard day.

Well back to practice, shhhh, don’t tell the guys yet but we’ve got a laundry list of new tunes to start working on. Better get them ready and hit the street with them.

January 2012