OUR SPONSORS
The Band would not be able to survive and prosper without the generous support of our main sponsors. We thank these organisations for their commitment to the Band and its aims.
Should you belong to an organisation which might see a benefit in becoming involved in the University of Ballarat Pipe Band, please contact us.
Our naming sponsor since 1995, the University of Ballarat supports the Band in numerous ways. Aside from the financial commitment to provide the Band with instrument requirements, subsidises major uniform acquisitions and contributes to major projects like international travel. With the Band being dedicated to the preservation of culture through teaching and performance, the 'fit' between the University and the Band is strong and mutually beneficial. The Band has greatly enjoyed the personal support of successive Vice Chancellors personally. There are relatively few 'university pipe bands' worldwide, and we are in particularly fine company with our links - past and ongoing - to the Simon Fraser University Pipe Band of Burnaby, Canada - the current Grade 1 World Champions.
In 2008 the City of Ballarat re-established links with the Band, after having been its main naming sponsor in the first couple of years following the amalgamation of the Highland and Scottish bands. The generosity of the Council enabled the Band to acquire a new set of Pearl drums (10 snares, 4 tenors and a bass) during 2008. These drums were debuted at the Australian and South Pacific Pipe Band Championships in Sydney, where the Drum Corps dominated. The Band has also acquired bass drone banners featuring the Ballarat "Come to Life" campaign. These have made a distinctive and colourful addition to the look of the Band and has showcased our fine city.
Over the past few years, Gold Bus Ballarat have provided the Band with safe, luxurious and regular transport to contests around Victoria and travel to Melbourne Airport when we travel interstate and overseas to compete. We are the envy of many other bands having the ability to call on such a resource, and the coach often provides a distinctive and functional base at contests - as well as loudly and clearly telling the world we are from Ballarat and proud of it!
Ballarat Grammar has had deep yet informal connections with the Band running over decades. The School has had pipers - invariably associated with one or other of the Ballarat pipe bands - since at least the mid 1970s. In recent years, connections have been formalised and the Band practices weekly at Ballarat Grammar's Wendouree Centre for Performing Arts. The School provides music scholarships to students, a condition of which is becoming a member of the University of Ballarat Pipe Band. Grammar recently became the sixteenth school in Australia to have its own, active pipe band, using the University's older Premier drums. Members of the University of Ballarat Pipe Band today include current and former Grammar students, staff and parents.