22nd Annual Texas Scottish Festival

[Morris at Heathfield]

The 22nd Annual Texas Scottish Festival was held on June 6-8, 2008. I attended on Saturday the 7th from about 11am to nearly 10pm. This is the first Highland games I had been to since I attended the games in Campbell, California, some time around 1990. I came armed with a digital camera, and I ended up taking quite a few pictures.

Disclaimers: It's my intent to post the photos in chronological order, more or less. If a picture is out of order, I may or may not note the fact. If you really want to know, you can tell where it fits by the first four numerals in the image's filename (which you can find by right-clicking and selecting "Properties"). Any caption that includes quotation marks may not be an actual quote of something I overheard. It may not even be an actual paraphrase. In some cases I may name people according to the tartan they're wearing. Of course, that does not necessarily mean it's their actual surname.



This is where the games took place: Maverick Stadium on the University of Texas, Arlington campus. I took this photo in the late afternoon. I wondered why the football field was left pretty much empty, but I suppose they wanted to keep the other entertainment away from this tent so as not to distract the Highland dancers, the solo pipers, and the Scottish country dancers.



One of the first things I saw on entering the stadium. The Celtic Craft Centre offers this bit of helpful advice from the January 2007 Tartan Herald: If you're ever on Edinburgh's Royal Mile you can obtain a 100% genuine Pakistani acrylikilt for a very low price. These kilts are easily identifiable by the tags with the Celtic knotwork border which read "Scottish Highland Kilt - Authentic Woven Tartan - Designed in Scotland". Acrylic is a fabric that is superior to wool in almost every respect. The only drawback is its unfortunate tendency to spontaneously burst into flames. (Okay, so I'm just "paraphrasing" here. )



The North Texas Caledonians holding up traffic near the the vendors' tents. I first saw them perform at a firefighter piper symposium in Lewisville a month or so back. I thought they were wearing the Mackenzie tartan at the time, but I soon learned better: it's the Robertson Hunting. (Actually, one of the Caledonians was wearing the Ulster [not red] tartan, and one was wearing the Campell [ancient] at the time, but I didn't see any Caledonians out of uniform on Saturday.)

These aren't all the pictures I have, by any means. I will post more as time permits.

[Christo13]

Looking forward to the other photos.

My wife and I were there Saturday, but I wasn't feeling very well and we ended up heading out much earlier than I would have liked.

[TheSp8]

I wish it was a closer drive from San Antonio, I'd liked to come up for the games. Looking forward to more pics.

YMOS,
Tony

[Rogerson785]

WOW! Spontaneous combustion, guess I had better just get the casual model with elastic and Velcro closures, that way I can go from kilted to streaking in a flash.

[Morris at Heathfield]

Red Five, start your attack run.



Ascending order of height. The tallest is wearing the Buchanan Dress Blue tartan. It's unlike any other Buchanan tartan, unless you count the Vestiarium Scoticum's Buchanan.



The violet team.



Waiting their turn. Note the tartan on the lassie with the parasol. I believe that's the Oliver Dress, or Oliver Dress Pink tartan. (I had to look it up in the Tartan Ferret to recall the name, but I knew I'd come across it before.) It's a lovely tartan, in my opinion, although I'm not sure I'd wear it myself.



The primary colors team. (Physics, not art.)



The older kids. The guy on the left is the only male I saw competing in the Highland dancing. It makes me kind of wish I had gotten into it when I was going through my Scottish phase the first time around. I think I'm a little old for it now.



The last of the sword dancers.

[Morris at Heathfield]

"You hold your arms like this."



"Yeah, yeah, coach, I've got it down already."



Miss MacDuff puts her technique into practice.



Miss Ross Hunting does the same.

[Morris at Heathfield]

A panoramic view of the clan tent area. But what's with the flag of St. George? St. George's Day was well over a month ago.



Okay, I'm still not sure I get it.



It is no joy without Clan Donald, which is why they get the most tent space. Well, technically there's two different groups: the Clan Donald Society and Clan Donald USA. There was one guy there who was very knowledgeable about MacDonald emigration to North America, and they had some useful books, too. When I mentioned that I had Campbell ancestors, one of them said, "We all have a Campbell in there somewhere." But nobody would give me a straight answer when I asked why their table (Clan Donald USA) was decorated with the Lindsay tartan.



One of these tartans is not like the others.



"There are FOUR Campbell tartans!" Being the contrarian that I am, I had to ask what a Highland dancer of the Campbell persuasion would wear, if not the Dress Campbell (e.g., of Argyll). This fellow said the dancer had better hope one of the judges was not a Campbell. The lady in the hat was eager to get me signed up, but I managed to steer the conversation to less commercial matters, such as the price of Campbell Tartan by Alastair Campbell of Airds. If they had had copies for sale I would have bought one on the spot.

[Morris at Heathfield]

The Caledonians perform in the Glengarry tent.



Take a look at the wee lassie in the front. You can't tell very well from a still photo, but she was dancing to the music. It looked like either Highland or Irish dancing to me (she was going up and down), but I'm no expert.



Twenty-two pipers, four microphones.



Now, this was a rather surreal experience. I glanced over here and realized I had curtains in the exact same tartan as is draped over either end of this table. I'm pretty sure it's not a registered tartan.



The Caledonians return from their performance at the Glengarry tent.



Somewhat later on in the day. There was a woman nearby with a shirt that read "Kilt Inspector". Good thing I was wearing trousers. I tried to take a picture of her shirt, but she turned around before I could get a shot.

Okay, I think I'll turn in now, but I still have many more pictures to come.

[SFCRick]

looks like a grand time

[elrond]

yeah, It must have been a great funny day!

thanks for the pics!