Tartan week in NYC

[RGM1]

A question for the pipers in the group. Do you just ignore the rain when piping in a parade? You obviously can't manage an umbrella. My sense of modern tweeds is they don't provide much protection. I hate the idea of wearing a jacket over my kilt outfit since part of the point of being kilted is for your tartan to be seen. I am planning to travel light for the tartan day parade which means minimal changes of dry clothes. Ie once damp, will stay damp.

[Father Bill]

I'm not a piper, but the traditional rain gear is a waterproof Inverness style cape. (I know someone will soon post pictures of these in use.)

The pipers' version of these has a section under the arm which is designed to prevent slippage of the air-bag. It does indeed cover most of the tartan which is unfortunate but a reality. Wet pipers are generally unhappy pipers.

I have just such an Inverness cape which I prefer as my rain gear and love to wear.

[jsrnephdoc]

A question for the pipers in the group. Do you just ignore the rain when piping in a parade? You obviously can't manage an umbrella. My sense of modern tweeds is they don't provide much protection. I hate the idea of wearing a jacket over my kilt outfit since part of the point of being kilted is for your tartan to be seen. I am planning to travel light for the tartan day parade which means minimal changes of dry clothes. Ie once damp, will stay damp.

One of the reasons I joined this group was because of a random thought that it might be nice to own a REAL Inverness Cape, one actual JUSTIFICATION for that being that I live (Montana) where it still sometimes gets VERY cold in Winter. I've never actually touched or even SEEN a wool Inverness Cape. Kinloch Anderson advertises that they sell them but had none to show me when we visited Edinburgh in summer 2023. I see in the iOS App and website for NYC Tartan week that there will be a few retailers scattered about on parade day. Rain might provide truly clever ones an opportunity to sell Rain Capes, but I think the usual source for them is Mr. Antony in Scotland, so no opportunity there.

I HAVE seen a Piper's rain cape. When I was frustrated in my search for the real deal, I posted on local Bozeman Social Media a request to see one, and a local piper met me in a parking lot to show me his. He was FAR more "substantial" than I in size, and even when I draped it over my MUCH smaller corpus it just looked like an enormous plastic tarp.

I have no idea whether the event app will provide useful weather or event updates ON parade day. One other development is that it now appears we're likely to have probably VERY large competition for transit before and after the event from the (to me VERY welcome) national day of protest which will be just a few blocks away from the parade in Bryant Park at times overlapping with the parade.

[RGM1]

Oh great a bunch of grumpy scots in the middle of a large and noisy protest. What could go wrong!

[OC Richard]

The 2007 World Pipe Band Championships in Glasgow had rain all day, and pretty much all the bands were wearing "rain capes".

For the 5 minutes of actually competing many of the bands would take off their capes. Others would leave them on.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_IaT9Rl1i5Y

Here's Grade One Field Marshal Montgomery celebrating at the close of the day.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S93xByN7uzI

"Form follows function" so they say, and it's interesting that Highland Wear and Western Wear have come to more or less the same solution for rain.

What's nice about the Scottish "rain cape" for piping is that there are no sleeves, and the arm-hole is big, so you can put the pipe's bag up in your armpit and play as you would normally. The big cape keeps the pipes fairly dry when you're carrying them.

What Highland Dress gets wrong is the hat! Bonnets are brimless and rain starts pouring down your neck into the cape. I've found for rain the ideal combination is a sturdy thick felt cowboy hat, Scottish "rain cape", and waterproof cowboy boots. You simply don't get wet.