Highland Storm to perform for their Highness

By Ryan Quigley

Journal Pioneer

The College of Piping’s Highland Storm will be performing for the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge during their visit to Dalvay by the Sea on July 4^th.

The group, which consists of 30 performers, about 75 per cent of which are from Prince County, will be performing their show of dancing, drumming and bagpiping for the Royal Couple one day before they were scheduled to have their first official performance.

The Highland Storm are part of several acts performing at Dalvay by the Sea, starting at 2:25 p.m. they will span from Celtic, Aboriginal and Acadian acts.

The opportunity to have the group’s first performance is very exciting, said executive director Karen Hatcher.

“The first public appearance of our new show will be for the Royal couple which is pretty exciting,” she said. “What an absolute privilege it is to be selected to participate.”

The cast and crew for the Storm were only informed about the performance Tuesday afternoon.

“Of course I’ve known they were coming since March and it wasn’t until the last few hours that everything’s been confirmed,” she said. “It came together very quickly.”

The Celtic performance will be rehearsed almost every day in the lead up to the performance while working on a new routine, said Hatcher.

“We actually just started rehearsal for our 2011 production,” she said. “We’ll be keeping the royal visit in mind as we’re doing our choreography.”

The opportunity to take the stage in one of the biggest media the Island has ever seen will be great publicity for the Highland Storm, she said.

“It will give us some nice exposure. We’ve increased our number of performances to 33 in total so it gives more people a greater opportunity to see our show,” she said. “I think this is a great opportunity for us to showcase the talent that is right here in Summerside.”