I was planning to hit up Pirate weekend at some point. Should be good fun.

Oh, and as for pipes sounding good or not, generally people who don't like the bagpipes feel that way because they've heard someone playing out of tune at one point or another. Out of tune = bleh. Luckily, I can tell the difference!

More importantly, the reason I can't play the pipes at the Tipp is because I have yet to purchase them
I'm still working on my chanter, however I am in the market for a set and have been looking around at my options (I do have a set of small pipes though). Probably won't have made a decision by next month, but you never know. Crazy things happen all the time.