Coquitlam, BC, March 22, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — BC’s annual Scottish music, culture and competition festival expands this year with several new events, including a Friday night concert by one of the world’s top pipe bands and a full day of world music festival.

Since the pandemic ScotFestBC hosts major annual festivals in Coquitlam’s Town Center Park, focusing on a full Saturday program after a Friday night of music, dance, whiskey and oysters. With the venue no longer able to accommodate everything and crowds growing, the festival is adding a more robust Friday night program which includes a full concert by the SFU Pipe Band and traditional Irish artist Sharon Shannon, as well as a whole new day – a Sunday world music festival featuring the main stage hosted by Yukon resident Gurdeep Pandher. The event will be renamed “ScotFestBC: The British Columbia Highland Games & World Music Festival.”

The festival takes place from June 16th to 18th in Coquitlam’s Town Center Park.

“The additions reflect what we’re hearing from attendees and the growing crowd,” says Mike Chisholm, Executive Director of ScotFestBC. “ScotFestBC has long been BC’s only opportunity to see the big pipe bands, the best pipers and some of the best Celtic groups in the world, and we’re responding to interest in more of this by adding more. We’re also responding to interest in more world music that we’ve brought to our stages in recent years by adding a one-day world music festival on Sundays, which provides an opportunity to celebrate the diversity of music from around the world that makes a home found BC.”

ScotFestBC’s multicultural music program began a few years ago with a performance by the Royal Academy of Bhangra, a Surrey-based group that blends Indian Punjab dance traditions with those of the Scottish Highlands. From then on the program grew. The festival added a dedicated world music stage to its Saturday schedule a few years ago and is now expanding to a full day of parks…