A free festival in historic downtown Woodland showcasing Celtic music, dance, food, and culture, including pipe band competitions, solo piping and drumming, massed bands, and Scottish Highland dancing.

2025 NORCAL CELTIC FESTIVAL

Saturday April 26th 8 am - 7 pm (street fair & vendors)

Pipe Bands, Solo Piping and Drumming, Massed Bands, Championship Scottish Highland Dancing, Drum Majors, Heavy Athletics, Celtic Music, Beer Garden & Vendors

Sunday April 27th 8 am - 12 pm (competitors & workshops)

Scottish Highland Dancing, Solo Piping(Piob), Piping Workshops

This FREE To Attend NorCal Celtic Festival, in beautiful and historic downtown Woodland, will showcase Celtic music, dance, food and culture. Kilted Pipe Bands, Solo Pipers and Drummers, Drum Majors and Scottish Highland Dancers will compete throughout the day along Main Street, culminating in the much anticipated gathering of the Massed Pipes and Drums playing “Scotland the Brave.” The Festival finale features a Celtic Band that will be announced soon!

The City of Sacramento Pipe Band, in conjunction with ScotDance Sacramento, is hosting a series of mini-Scottish Games in the Spring and Summer of 2023. These “Pipes and Pubs” series of contests will be held at local breweries in Northern California and will offer solo piping & drumming, pipe band, Scottish Highland dance and drum major competitions. Pipes and Pubs events will offer competitors more frequent opportunities for Western United States Pipe Band Association (pipe band) and RSOBHD (dance) sanctioned contests in the Northern California area.

The City of Sacramento Pipe Band is a 501(c)3 organization. Donations and sponsorships are gratefully accepted. A pipe band is a musical ensemble consisting of pipers and drummers. The term pipes and drums, used by military pipe bands is also common.The pipe band consists of a section of pipers playing the bagpipe, a section of snare drummers (often referred to as ‘side drummers’), several tenor drummers and one bass drummer. The band follows the direction of the pipe major, and when on parade the band may be led by a drum major, who directs the band with a mace. Many pipe bands wear a tartan that may reflect the area the band originated from or the history of the band. The typical pipe band uniform consists of a glengarry (cap), shirt, tie, waistcoat (vest), jacket, kilt, hose (tall socks) and ghillie brogues (shoes).

Competition is a primary focus for many pipe bands. Pipe bands around the world compete against each other at various venues, often at local and regional Highland (or “ Scottish” or “Celtic”) games and festivals. The World Pipe Band Championships are held each August in Glasgow, Scotland and draw several hundred competitive bands from throughout the world for a weekend of intense competition.

Unique to each band, the different band competition sets consist of two parts, the March, Strathspey & Reel ( “MSR”) set and the Timed Medley. The MSR consists of three traditional style tunes played at Grade level proficiency. The Timed Medley is made up of different style tunes, with each grade required to play specific length sets.

Piping and drumming soloists compete in several different events depending on their grade level. Grade 5 is the entry level grade for new competitors, up through grade 1 and Professional levels for the highly skilled players. Tune requirements vary by grade due to the proficiency level of the musician and/or band. Pipes and Pubs is thrilled to bring this Western United States Pipe Band Association sanctioned event to the NorCal Celtic Festival. We look forward to sharing the music and culture of Scotland in Woodland. You can register below.