ALTHOUGH he thought it was dashed, five-year-old Kane Festou’s pipedream became reality this New Year’s Eve.

For almost as long has he has been alive, Kane’s New Years have been marked by the arrival of the Caledonian Pipe Band. He has become a huge fan of the bagpipes. Every year he has joined his family at the Royal Hotel, where the chimes of midnight prompt the pipers to play. But this year, to Kane’s dismay, the pipers were not the stars of David Place. They had booked elsewhere – to the surprise of mum Corrina Festou, her partner Danny Fletcher, and Kane himself. ‘We sat down to eat thinking that Kane’s New Year would be without his beloved pipes,’ Corrina said. But help was at hand. The Royal Hotel’s duty manager, Paul Cowgill, contacted his opposite number at the Pomme d’Or, where he knew the Caledonian Pipe Band were playing, and a rescue plan was hatched. ‘Just before midnight someone came in and asked for the young boy who wanted to hear the bagpipes,’ said Corrina. ‘He was from the Pomme d’Or, and he drove us across town to the hotel. We arrived just in time to hear the bagpipes. Kane was ecstatic, and it really made his New Year.’