On June 26 and 27, 2021, the 19th edition of the National Confrontation of Bagpipe Bands took place, organized by the Provincial Public Library and the Center for Cultural Animation in Poznań.

During two days, the Teatr Wielki in Poznań hosted workshops for young musicians, an open seminar, and a competition for builders of bagpipes and folk violin instruments that accompanied the bagpipes.

During the meetings, the musicians got acquainted with lectures by eminent figures from the ethnographic world of Wielkopolska. A short lecture on the history of Greater Poland bagpipes was delivered by professor dr hab. Zbigniew Przerembski – an outstanding ethnomusicologist, expert in folk music.

During the Sunday competition, the Greater Poland bagpipes prepared by himself were presented by Fryderyk Jankowski, a student of the Forge of Tradition. The originality of the performance and the great playing of the instrument were clearly appreciated by this year’s jury. At the end of the event, a concert of bagpipers, goats and soloists took place in the Old Market Square in Poznań.

This year, for the first time, members of the bagpipe band Kuźnia Tradycji and the White- Goat band performed there. The group of pipers was represented by: Jagoda Pawlak (violin), Wojciech Ozóg (bagpipes) and Fryderyk Jankowski (bagpipes), and the white goat band were represented by: Karina Gąsiorowska (violin) and Jakub Sławiński (wedding goat).

Selected bands and soloists, over fifty musicians mainly from Greater Poland, have been invited to participate in the event.

The main idea of ​​the Poznań National Bagpipe Bands Confrontations is to protect bagpipe and goat bagpipe traditions, which have recently been entered on the UNESCO National List of Intangible Cultural Heritage.