Day Two done and it's all over for another year.
What to make of it all?
Well, I was clearly pretty skeptical after Day One, but I set out to the Green with determination to keep an open mind. A spectacular Sunday would perhaps consign the Saturday reservations to the scrap heap.
As I approached the park, one thing which puzzled me was the way I was feeling. Usually, on the day after the Worlds, I am itching for more. More pipes, more drums, more haggis, neaps and tatties. But not today. I wasn't sure what I was feeling, but it wasn't the normal anticipation the Worlds provides. It could have beeb the weather from yesterday; it might have been pure tiredness; but whatever it was, it was a feeling I wasn't accustomed to.
I got to the Green as the Grade One MSR contest was about to begin. In contrast to Saturday, the skies were blue and the big bands were strutting their stuff. I raced round the tuning park, videoing all manner of warm up routines.
Again, the crowd levels were immediately noticeable. Normally, the art of the tuning park videographer requires a great deal of guile. One must try to anticipate the next move of any given Pipe Major, one must acquire a skill of predicting when a "take five minutes guys" break will conclude and the drums will be slung back on. The alternative is to find yourself at the back of a 10-deep mob, struggling to get any shot at all.
Not so this year. The more prolific winners were still attracting decent numbers but it was nonetheless possible to saunter up to even Field Marshal and SFU without having to elbow any other spectators in the ribs.
And that was before the rain came.
Saturday was a worse day consistently but Sunday was vicious. High winds meant that torrential downpours were arriving unpredictably but with ferocity. Some bands lucked it and avoided the worst but others had incredibly fragmented tuning - running for cover and darting out when a patch of blue sky appeared. The performances probably suffered for some bands and then was at least one literal casualty. A drummer from Triumph Street failed to dodge a flying sign which had blown off a food stall. For the rest of the day he sported a nasty looking gash to the side of his left eye. I also saw an RSPBA sign hit the deck - but a few metres from any spectators.
After the MSR competition was concluded, I took advantage of the lull and made for the food stalls. Again, they were quiet - not as bad as Saturday, but quiet.
Indeed, the whole park was pretty quiet. With half the competition done the day before and many bands already heading home. It was possible for the whole place to descend into silence. That's not a feature of the one day event.
Returning for the Medley performances, it was more of the same. If anything, the showers were more frequent, but perhaps lighter. This didn't help with the tuning, as neurotic Pipe Majors headed for the tents at the first spit - fearing another deluge.
As is my wont, I spent my day in the tuning park and skipped the ring. It is hard to hear from distance and frankly is probably better observed from the comfort of a sofa on the live stream.
It is no real predictor of performance in the ring, but I liked Greater Glasgow Police, Triumph Street and Boghall. The Boggies seemed to have very little collective practice before going on and Ryan Canning appears to have adopted the Patented Parkes Preparation Method - keep tuning and play in sixty second bursts to keep things going. Speaking of Shotts, the drum corps seems reinvigorated. They are tighter and more musical than I have heard them in years. I'm not sure whether Jim's well-documented troubles last year have energised him, but something seems to be working.
The Grade One contest concluded with Triumph Street and there began the wait. The Finale was the usual turgid affair. The intense cold and the threat of further rain led to more grumbles than ever about the length of time it was all taking. The truth is that the spectacle delivered by the Finale is not worth the delay it creates. Thankfully, it was briefer than usual due to the absence of the Saturday contingent of players.
The results were the usual mixed bag. Perhaps unusually, the Grade One winners seemed to meet with universal approval. Field Marshal have been so good of late that no one seemed to begrudge them the victory. The drum corps finally captured the World Title - worthy winners too.
Interestingly, during the finale, just after Grade One had been called someone left a mic open amongst the officials. It was faint, but there seemed to be a conversation about the crowd level. If I picked it up correctly, they seemed to be commenting on the respectable crowd on this hill but wondering "where they all came from".
Certainly, the crowd was better than it had been but it fell far short of the usual Saturday crush on the hill. The reason for the swelling in numbers at the end was, I suspect, due to the bars closing and the traders frantically dismantling their stalls whilst the bands assembled.
I spoke to a few traders and didn't get any positive response to the Two Day format. One said she had been busy but emphatically stated she didn't want the two day experiment to be any more than that. Food traders seemed badly hit. I saw several stands where staff far outnumbered customers. Taking into account the pitch prices, I suspect quite a number will have gone home much the poorer for the whole thing.
In my conversations with all and sundry, I couldn't find a single soul who liked the new arrangement. A word which has entered my head as I strode into Glasgow Green in the morning was "flat" - and the same word was independently used by quite a number of others, entirely unprompted. The atmosphere was lacking and that could be for any number of reasons. Bad weather is a risk at any contest and the Worlds has no special immunity. It doesn't usually harm the feel of the place. More likely the stretch in the events and the splitting of the contest diminished the crowd to a degree which wasn't anticipated. I suspect that the Association believed Saturday players would return as spectators on Sunday, but they didn't. They left - and they took family and friends with them. This resulted in a colossal hole in the crowd.
During the Finale it was announced that there will be a vote in September to decide the format going forward. It will be interesting to see if anyone speaks in favour of two days, and if so, why.
For the sake of balance, I happily identify one positive feature. The chance to hear the non-qualifying Grade One outfits run out MSRs and Medleys on Day One made for a pleasant change. As everyone probably knows, the old system, complete with bands pre-qualifying, resulted in the Bands forced to play for their place early on a Saturday in front of no-one. If unsuccessful, a Grade One band could effectively be done for the day by 9.15am - and never have a chance to air their medley at all. Of course, many of the lower grade bands can still be done after a poor qualifying run early in the morning and the decision to run qualifying and finals for other grades entirely in the space of either the Saturday or Sunday has made no real change to the Worlds experience for many of those bands (save for the fact that some bands now have their Saturday on a Sunday, if you know what I mean).
I'll not labour the point, but I still think that the answer is to shift back to the one day format in tandem with a re-grading exercise. The resultant smaller Grade One would allow for a two round "final" featuring around 16 Bands to take place within the space of the single day, eliminating the need for qualifying entirely. It would also return a number of the lesser Grade One outfits to Grade Two, where they might actually trouble the Judges.
So what did you think?
