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When did they start playing the bagpipes in the Praza do Obradoiro?

dick bird

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Leading off from another thread, which will remain anonymous, I am curious to know when they started playing the bagpipes in the archway leading into the Praza do Obradoiro. They certainly weren´t doing it in the late 1980s, and I don´t remember there being a bagpipe player the first time I strode triumphantly into the Praza in 2012. Bagpipe playing is thirsty work, I have been told, so maybe the resident piper was off boosting their fluid intake, but I´m not sure if they were there in 2015 either. Now they seem to be a regular feature, a feature I suspect the Xunta tourist office may have a hand in, but does anyone know who the players are, how they get the gig and when they started?
 
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The pipe player was there when i walked in the first time in 2019. I would not be surprised if that thing started some years earlier.
After having walked in a few more times now, I am not so sure if I really like it. But i can see how it is nice for the first timers...

I would guess as with most places it is some kind of license you acquire from some kind of authority in SdC.
 
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The bagpiper was there in 2022, he was also there in 2016, I am pretty sure he was there in 2012, he may have been there in 2009 but I dragged myself into SdC half sick and don't remember much at all, and I don't remember if he was there in 2005.
 
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There was no bagpiper at the end of my first camino in 2004 nor for any of the next years through 2014. However the cathedral bells always sounded wonderful.
Odd, he was there June 1st, ´14!!
 
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I don't remember one in July 2015. When did you get there in 2015 Chris?

There was one near the 100 km mojone though (a kilometer or so away).
View attachment 179175
I didn't see your guy, Rick, but I walked through on May 16, 2015 and heard the bagpipes loud and clear. I guess he was taking his del dia lunch break when you passed by.
 
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Leading off from another thread, which will remain anonymous, I am curious to know when they started playing the bagpipes in the archway leading into the Praza de Obradoiro. They certainly weren´t doing it in the late 1980s, and I don´t remember there being a bagpipe player the first time I strode triumphantly into the Praza in 2012. Bagpipe playing is thirsty work, I have been told, so maybe the resident piper was off boosting their fluid intake, but I´m not sure if they were there in 2015 either. Now they seem to be a regular feature, a feature I suspect the Xunta tourist office may have a hand in, but does anyone know who the players are, how they get the gig and when they started?
There was definitely a piper there when I finished my first Camino in 2013.

Being Scottish it seemed like an appropriate welcome!

Been one there aswell every other subsequent time I've passed through
 
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There was someone playing the bagpipes my first time there in November 2001. Fifteen years later when I finally made it for the second time, and as the emotion was building coming closer to the cathedral, I heard the bagpipes again. Well that’s all that was needed for the tears of joy! 🥹 Long live the bagpiper!
 
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Someone was there, playing his GAETA - not a bagpipe - in late May 2013 - when I first arrived off the Camino Frances. There are structural differences between the classic Irish, Scots bagpipes and the Galician gaeta. I believe the gaeta is considered the forerunner of the bagpipe.

As I am not a musician, and cannot carry a tune in a bucket, I defer to those more learned for a description of the differences between the historical Galician gaeta and the bagpipes.

Hope this helps.

Tom
 
I went to college in Santiago in the 90's and there were "gaiteiros" around the cathedral already. Maybe not every day or for so many hours, But it was happening already. In fact, the boyfriend of one of my friends used to play there sometimes, whenever he needed some extra cash.

Nowadays, there are a few of them, who take turns, as this article explains: https://www.elcorreogallego.es/sant...ardia-musical-catedral-santiago-89690786.html
 
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I think I heard that there is a rotating group of musicians from a local music school that sign up. In addition to pipers I also saw a harpist once. On the day after I arrived in Santiago for the first time in 2021 I was hanging around the plaza to greet some arriving friends and noticed there was no piper for an hour or two in the afternoon. I felt badly for first time pilgrims who didn’t get to experience the music.
 
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The one from Galicia (the round) and the one from Castilla & Leon. Individually numbered and made by the same people that make the ones you see on your walk.
There certainly was on 16th October 2001. I walked into the plaza with a young German pilgrim and she said "They must have heard Roland (a Scottish Presbyterian minister walking with our "shoal") is arriving and they've laid it on in his honour!"
 
Leading off from another thread, which will remain anonymous, I am curious to know when they started playing the bagpipes in the archway leading into the Praza de Obradoiro. They certainly weren´t doing it in the late 1980s, and I don´t remember there being a bagpipe player the first time I strode triumphantly into the Praza in 2012. Bagpipe playing is thirsty work, I have been told, so maybe the resident piper was off boosting their fluid intake, but I´m not sure if they were there in 2015 either. Now they seem to be a regular feature, a feature I suspect the Xunta tourist office may have a hand in, but does anyone know who the players are, how they get the gig and when they started?
FAR too early in the morning.
 
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There certainly was on 16th October 2001. I walked into the plaza with a young German pilgrim and she said "They must have heard Roland (a Scottish Presbyterian minister walking with our "shoal") is arriving and they've laid it on in his honour!"
For some reason I have had it in my mind for a long time that my second Camino was in 2002. But your post prompted me to look again at my Compostela for that walk. Sure enough it says 16 October 2001! And although I had a solid Presbyterian upbringing by that point I had defected to the Anglicans... :-)

Compress_20241015_203142_2786.webp
 
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I don't mind bag pipes at all when played well and performing an actual song, but I haven't encountered well played bag pipes on my six trips into Santiago. Bag pipes don't lend themselves well to jazz.
On a positive note though, I've never encountered a snake in Santiago so the bag pipe playing does seem to have a positive effect in this regard...
 
For some reason I have had it in my mind for a long time that my second Camino was in 2002. But your post prompted me to look again at my Compostela for that walk. Sure enough it says 16 October 2001! And although I had a solid Presbyterian upbringing by that point I had defected to the Anglicans... :-)

View attachment 179186
What a coincidence! Can you believe it's been 23 years? I've been reading my journal this past week - shocking how naïve I was then.
 
What a coincidence! Can you believe it's been 23 years? I've been reading my journal this past week - shocking how naïve I was then.
I found my 1990 Camino diary last year when putting all my house contents into storage. I thought I'd lost it years ago. A little sobering to realise that the person writing was less than half my current age! On my first solo journey abroad. No live music on that first arrival in Santiago but a souvenir shop in the Praza da Quintana was playing a tape by the wonderful Galician group Milladoiro. A young woman in front of me turned to her partner and said "They have music like this in Scotland." Exactly my thoughts at the time! :-) I bought a tape of their "O Berro Seco" album. Now available on YouTube. Listening to it even now takes me straight back to that time and place.
 
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I found my 1990 Camino diary last year when putting all my house contents into storage. I thought I'd lost it years ago. A little sobering to realise that the person writing was less than half my current age! On my first solo journey abroad. No live music on that first arrival in Santiago but a souvenir shop in the Praza da Quintana was playing a tape by the wonderful Galician group Milladoiro. A young woman in front of me turned to her partner and said "They have music like this in Scotland." Exactly my thoughts at the time! :-) I bought a tape of their "O Berro Seco" album. Now available on YouTube. Listening to it even now takes me straight back to that time and place.
Wow, 1990. Just 4918 Compostelas issued!
 
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Sounds like it is an informal system that grew up out of busking in the 1990´s with busking in the arch a regular thing by 2001. I had a friend who busked in London underground stations way back in the 70´s and they had the same system, intending buskers would meet together and arrange who had the pitch and for how long. If anyone has any more info, please share it. I´d love to know more.
 
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Might one ask ‘when will they stop?’
We celebrated the completion of our camino in 2018 by staying in the Parador. Turned out, our room was very close to the bagpiper! We fell asleep listening to those dulcet (?) sounds!
Those bagpipes did not get in the way of our getting a good night's sleep - we have no clue when he stopped playing 😂!
 
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My grandfather came over from Portugal in the late early 1910s. At our annual festa West Sacramento, he always insisted on having bagpipes in the procession because it reminded him “of the old country.” What a treat for me to hear them and think of my Papa as I finished my first Camino years ago.
 
Sounds like it is an informal system that grew up out of busking in the 1990´s with busking in the arch a regular thing by 2001. I had a friend who busked in London underground stations way back in the 70´s and they had the same system, intending buskers would meet together and arrange who had the pitch and for how long. If anyone has any more info, please share it. I´d love to know more.
I know that Dublin has it strictly regulated. Grafton Street is THE place, you are allowed a one hour slot and have to have a city licence.
There's some incredible talent performing there including Allie Sherlock who has been busking on a Saturday for eight years now. She's 19!

Allie Sherlock

I would assume that in earlier times Santiago would have attracted street entertainers such as troubadours and jugglers as well as the more commonplace cutpurses and ladies of negotiable affection . . . I really must read the Canterbury Tales again!
 
Get a spanish phone number with Airalo. eSim, so no physical SIM card. Easy to use app to add more funds if needed.
Ideal sleeping bag liner whether we want to add a thermal plus to our bag, or if we want to use it alone to sleep in shelters or hostels. Thanks to its mummy shape, it adapts perfectly to our body.

€46,-
Cue memories of highland games and finishing the camino - a very emotive combination!
 
The one from Galicia (the round) and the one from Castilla & Leon. Individually numbered and made by the same people that make the ones you see on your walk.
Apologies, my grasp of Spanish and indeed Gallego is appalling at the best of times. Xunta, of course!


Ach, go raibh míle maith agat🙃
 
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Leading off from another thread, which will remain anonymous, I am curious to know when they started playing the bagpipes in the archway leading into the Praza do Obradoiro. They certainly weren´t doing it in the late 1980s, and I don´t remember there being a bagpipe player the first time I strode triumphantly into the Praza in 2012. Bagpipe playing is thirsty work, I have been told, so maybe the resident piper was off boosting their fluid intake, but I´m not sure if they were there in 2015 either. Now they seem to be a regular feature, a feature I suspect the Xunta tourist office may have a hand in, but does anyone know who the players are, how they get the gig and when they started?
I remember the playing of th Gaeta on my first Camino back in 2002 at the arch leading to the Plaza. The name Gaeta is the equivalent of the bagpipe in Scotland but much older. The historical name is derived from Spanish for Cat and the scratchy drone sounds like a cat in heat.
 
Or a cat being strangled.. not that I've ever actually heard a cat being strangled or anything, but anyway...

Some of the players are better than others..
 
I was talking about this thread with a friend and fellow ex-pilgrim last night and this morning she sent me this:

1729286777575.webp

So not "one of us" then?
 
...and ship it to Santiago for storage. You pick it up once in Santiago. Service offered by Casa Ivar (we use DHL for transportation).
Leading off from another thread, which will remain anonymous, I am curious to know when they started playing the bagpipes in the archway leading into the Praza do Obradoiro. They certainly weren´t doing it in the late 1980s, and I don´t remember there being a bagpipe player the first time I strode triumphantly into the Praza in 2012. Bagpipe playing is thirsty work, I have been told, so maybe the resident piper was off boosting their fluid intake, but I´m not sure if they were there in 2015 either. Now they seem to be a regular feature, a feature I suspect the Xunta tourist office may have a hand in, but does anyone know who the players are, how they get the gig and when they started?
Since at least 2009
 
I'm never quite sure if people give them money to encourage them, or maybe to make them go away?
It has been my understanding, for some years now, that the city government maintains a rota of "approved" performers for the archway on the stairs coming down from Rua de Acibecheria into the Plaza do Obradoiro.

In prior years, when I have been there there volunteering for several weeks, I've seen the same people performing at regular times. It is as if they are scheduled to provide entertainment on a planned schedule. If someone knows otherwise, or has a source, please pitch in.

Thanks

Tom
 
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Leading off from another thread, which will remain anonymous, I am curious to know when they started playing the bagpipes in the archway leading into the Praza do Obradoiro. They certainly weren´t doing it in the late 1980s, and I don´t remember there being a bagpipe player the first time I strode triumphantly into the Praza in 2012. Bagpipe playing is thirsty work, I have been told, so maybe the resident piper was off boosting their fluid intake, but I´m not sure if they were there in 2015 either. Now they seem to be a regular feature, a feature I suspect the Xunta tourist office may have a hand in, but does anyone know who the players are, how they get the gig and when they started?
Was there when I walked through in 2013. I love the rich Celtic history of Galicia and Austurias.
 
dickbird ... seem to be a regular feature, a feature I suspect the Xunta tourist office may have a hand in, but does anyone know who the players are, how they get the gig and when they started? Hey, why not be honest and direct? Talk to the Xunta tourist office, or talk to the musicians in person. Why the concern of bagpipe music and a 'nefarious suspicion'? Is the 'Praza do Obradoiro' exclusive to a certain kind of music? Maybe your big deal is a big nothing.
@Mg. McKay, you may not have read any of the 66 replies in this thread, including posts from forum member @MariaSP who lives in Santiago and has a friend who once played the bagpipes under the arch of the Obradoiro square to earn some extra cash.

Santiago is not different from other towns with a similar appeal: the activity of street artists including buskers are regulated by the town administration of Santiago de Compostela. This is a known fact. Someone mentioned Dublin with a similar regulation for the main area of the town that attracts numerous visitors like the Obradoiro square in Santiago does.

In earlier years, busking activity and other artistic street activity like the "living statues" was a free-for-all in Santiago. For at least 10 years now, it is regulated: The bagpipers have to apply for a licence. There are between 12-20 musicians who have such a permission to perform. They arrange among themselves who plays when during the permitted time slots of the day.

The thread is an opportunity to share in which year pilgrims heard the sound of the bagpipe upon their arrival in Santiago for the first time and how they perceived it.

Enjoy 🥰!
 
Just for clarification: It is not the Tourist Office and not the Xunta but the Concello of Santiago who regulates the activity of street artists. Here is a link to the Normas Reguladoras da Realización de Actividades Artísticas na Vía Pública promovidas por Particulares which is publicly available on the website of the town administration of Santiago:

And for the list of all such regulations since 2013:
 
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Leading off from another thread, which will remain anonymous, I am curious to know when they started playing the bagpipes in the archway leading into the Praza do Obradoiro. They certainly weren´t doing it in the late 1980s, and I don´t remember there being a bagpipe player the first time I strode triumphantly into the Praza in 2012. Bagpipe playing is thirsty work, I have been told, so maybe the resident piper was off boosting their fluid intake, but I´m not sure if they were there in 2015 either. Now they seem to be a regular feature, a feature I suspect the Xunta tourist office may have a hand in, but does anyone know who the players are, how they get the gig and when they started?
We got to the square on Oct 30, 2015 and bagpiper was there. I thought it was wonderful.
 
I remember the playing of th Gaeta on my first Camino back in 2002 at the arch leading to the Plaza. The name Gaeta is the equivalent of the bagpipe in Scotland but much older. The historical name is derived from Spanish for Cat and the scratchy drone sounds like a cat in heat.
I read on Internet that "Gaita" comes from Germanic "Gaits" ( goat) because the bag is made of goatskin. So, you could better say " Goata" instead of " Gaeta".
 
A question raised in this thread was:
Is the 'Praza do Obradoiro' exclusive to a certain kind of music?

The answer is: Yes, it is exclusive to certain kinds of music!

I ploughed through some of the regulations to be able to have a fact-based and informed opinion before writing an answer. It is hard for me because the regulations that are accessible online are written in the Galician language. Some of the rules for individual musicians (exceptions are made for one-off concerts on stage on special feast days or for other special events) are:

You cannot make music just about anywhere on the Obradoiro square. You need an authorisation from the town's administration. You need to be in the spot that has been declared as a spot for busking and has been allocated to you.

The spot under the arch (Arco de Pazo de Xelmirez) is the most desirable for the street musicians. Only live performances are allowed without technical amplification. The kind of instrument used and the style of music performed must be approved by the town administration. Other regulations such as those on noise pollution and sound emission and sound reception in the immediate environment must be complied with. And apparently only either bagpipe music or lyric song are allowed in this specific location. Which is probably why no pilgrim in this thread reported that they heard a guitar, a flute, an accordion or a violin under the Arch of the Gelmirez Palace.

This is not a case of the Camino providing for the pilgrim ... the town administration provides for you. 😉
 
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A question raised in this thread was:


The answer is: Yes, it is exclusive to certain kinds of music!

I ploughed through some of the regulations to be able to have a fact-based and informed opinion before writing an answer. It is hard for me because the regulations that are accessible online are written in the Galician language. Some of the rules for individual musicians (exceptions are made for one-off concerts on stage on special feast days or for other special events) are:

You cannot make music just about anywhere on the Obradoiro square. You need an authorisation from the town's administration. You need to be in the spot that has been declared as a spot for busking and has been allocated to you.

The spot under the arch (Arco de Pazo de Xelmirez) is the most desirable for the street musicians. Only live performances are allowed without technical amplification. The kind of instrument used and the style of music performed must be approved by the town administration. Other regulations such as those on noise pollution and sound emission and sound reception in the immediate environment must be complied with. And apparently only either bagpipe music or lyric song are allowed in this specific location. Which is probably why no pilgrim in this thread reported that they heard a guitar, a flute, an accordion or a violin under the Arch of the Gelmirez Palace.

This is not a case of the Camino providing for the pilgrim ... the town administration provides for you. 😉
It’s their home - not sure I’d want amplified music being played outside my residence every day either.
Personally I love he Celtic pipes. it’s a very emotional experience every time I complete the Camino. I don’t believe you’d get that same vibe from a pop band.
 
The point is that the regulations stipulate, among other things, that the music must be live. It reminds me of the many times when I enter a church (outside of mass times) and I am greeted by Gregorian chant or organ music or similar music appropriate for the environment. Then I quickly realise that it is taped music. In such circumstances, I'd rather not hear it, beautiful as it may sound.
 
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The point is that the regulations stipulate, among other things, that the music must be live. It reminds me of the many times when I enter a church (outside of mass times) and I am greeted by Gregorian chant or organ music or similar music appropriate for the environment. Then I quickly realise that it is taped music. In such circumstances, I'd rather not hear it, beautiful as it may sound.
When I worked at Rabanal way back in 2002 the day started with a solo Gregorian chant off of a CD player in the Hospitalero office and we'd slowly crank up the volume to full blast as a "subtle" hint to get our guests on the road (and out of our hair). Convinced many a gullible pilgrim it was Xavier from the monastery next door singing live.
 
How interesting to learn all about this!

After I finished my last Camino I spent a few days in Santiago, mostly near the cathedral sketching or painting. So I would be sitting in one spot for several hours.I often enjoyed the first 20 mins of bagpipes, but after a few hours, I really changed my opinion. It’s probably permanently turned me off from bagpipes.

A musician that I was talking to, told me that at least in one instant the bagpiper was just doing the same musical exercises over and over again. Which is pretty much what it sounded like to me the whole time, three hours into it!

I confess, in general, I don’t like buskers or boomboxes invading my aural space . On the other hand I support and appreciate anyone who devotes their time to learning an art.
 
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