Do all pipers wear kilts?

[Homer]

Do all official bagpipers and pipe bands wear kilts while piping at events?

[O'Callaghan]

There are some who don't, such as in the Pakistani military, I believe. You can find exceptions to most things if you look for them.

[beloitpiper]

I don't remember which ones off the top of my head, but there are a few pipe bands in Scotland that do not wear kilts.

[Really a McQueen]

I would have to ask my cousin. But I can think of a couple of events when she was not kilted while piping. Granted those were family events, and she was not playing her highland pipes.

At one of those events, she was piping while wearing a bifurcated garment.

[Cowher]

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b3...e/P8020073.jpg

[MacMillans son]

As some have posted, it is heard of but fairly uncommon. I guess that's why we get the "Do you play the bagpipes" question so often. The two are just naturally linked in most peoples minds.

[Tim Little]

It seems like a lot of the bagads (Bagad Cap Caval, Bagad Kemper, etc.) do not:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/worlds/20...gad_cap_caval/

Gurkha Rifles Pipe Band also seems to be an exception:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/piperbasher/3704243628/

[Steve Barclay]

Here's one who didn't!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9CPqFuBiwV4

[Pyper]

Do all official bagpipers and pipe bands wear kilts while piping at events?

As said, the bagads don't seem to wear kilts, ever.

Here in the USA, most highland games (all the ones I'm aware of) require that piping competitor and pipe bands wear "appropriate highland dress" which seems to mean kilt, hose, and hat. You'll notice, if you go to watch solo piping events, that pipers tend to dress up a bit. I think it's part of the culture -- that we want to show we're part of the group of pipers who take piping seriously, by dressing in a certain way. You'll notice a lot of black waistcoats and chrome cantle sporans, even if it's 90F in blazing sun. And those puffy hose.

The band I'm in nearly always wears our full uniform whenever we play in public, but one time we went to play a Relay for Life event and just wore shorts and T's.

On the dozen or so times I've been asked to play as a soloist (i.e., a paid gig) I've always asked if they want me to wear a kilt, and they always do.

[OC Richard]

If the question is about Pipe Bands, oddly enough, though the various Pipe Band Associations in the USA (EUSPBA, WUSPBA, etc) require Pipe Bands to compete in Highland Dress, the RSPBA (Royal Scottish Pipe Band Association) does not.

Bands are only required to be in matching uniform.

So, as has been pointed out, bands such as The Royal Army Of Oman Pipe Band and Breton Bagad bands and Spanish gaita bands, all of which wear trousers, compete (and sometimes win) at competitions in Scotland.

And British military pipe bands such as those of The Scots Guards, Royal Scots Dragoon Guards, etc have their drummers in trousers. (A clause in the RSPBA rules allows for the pipe corps and drum corps to wear different uniforms.)

Under competition rules in the USA these bands would be DQ'd.

Another interesting quirk in the rules is that a pipe band in which each member wore a kilt in his own tartan would be OK in the USA but DQ'd in Scotland.

So, a pipe band from Texas, when competing in the USA, must wear Highland Dress, but in Scotland could compete in blue jeans, Western shirts, cowboy boots, and cowboy hats, as long as the entire band matched.