Nor Cal Highland Games Cancelled

[Alan H]

You can have all of that you want and it can be successful. But obviously, the type of "muddying the waters" of having the SCA and other non-Scottish, Ren Faire type entertainment leads to a degeneration of the games into something non-Scottish. You can't simply "slap tartan on it" and poof! it's Scottish! Most Scottish societies have the objective and mission to preserve their culture and heritage. Creating false ideas about what is "Scottish" is counter to that goal. I think bringing it back to its roots is admirable and true to the goal of Scottish societies.

It can be as true to the Societies goals as anybody could want, but if nobody pays to walk in the front gate, then the vendors don't come because they don't sell anything. If the people don't walk in the front gate, then there's no money to pay the professional athletes to show up to throw and there goes the GAMES part of it. In fact, here, locally, if there's no money involved, the local Athletics Association won't show up AT ALL...even for the local athletes, because it costs them money to fire up the truck and spend the day running the Athletics, and they have insurance bills to pay, you know?

Our local Athletics Group has a million dollar liability policy. They HAVE to have such a thing, or the guys on the board risk their homes and businesses in court if someone gets hurt when a hammer goes astray, God Forbid. Well, how do they pay the insurance bill? Who puts gas in the truck that schlepps all the gear to the site? How about the car insurance on the truck? How about when it needed new brakes last year?

The Athletes go through this over and over...about how we're representing our culture and so on. Funny, though...one of the Top Athletes is Mike Pockoski, and his heritage is from Poland. Funny how Kevin Wong and Alfonso Martinez throw with us locally, here. Funny how perhaps the finest Scottish Heavy Athletics athlete that the USA has ever produced is Ryan Viera, and his heritage is Hispanic.

Many of us do in fact feel a connection to our Heritage as we throw. However, it's made very plain that IN FACT to many of the participants, including at least a few organizing committee's, we are *entertainment*.

I don't have a problem with being *entertainment*, but I know full well that my results are not going to make it into the sports section of the newspaper, you know?

You needn't be Scottish to be interested in attending games. But you might ought to be actually interested in the games themselves or something that is being offered. Maybe trying to make the Games into festivals is the whole problem. Perhaps there should be more focus on the GAMES over all the other stuff that goes on.

In fact, I can tell you for a drop-dead certain fact that the focus of most of the local Games Organizing Committees here in Nor Cal is the Pipe Bands first, Clans second, Dancing third, and Athletics, 'way down the list. They'd prefer it if vendors didn't show up at all, but unfortunately vendors pay the bills through their fees for sales space.

Perhaps the Clan Societies and Scottish Societies should seek to work out some historical reinactment, weapons demonstrations, etc. instead of relying on others to do so in a way that is counter to their mission.

Who says that the Guilds goals are counter to the Clan Society goals? For one thing, the local Clan organiziers that I know of have absolutely no interest, whatsoever in anything to do with re-enactment. In fact, as you walk through the Nor Cal Clan tent area, you will notice something. The MacFarlanes and the Campbells stand out like a sore thumb. Why is that? Because the people manning the tent at those two clans are in their 30's and 40's. All the other clan tents are staffed by retired couples in their 60's, 70's and 80's.

They could give a rip about putting on a demonstration of a Jacobite campsite.

a Part of the problem is not just the lack of interest of the public, it's the lack of willingness to participate in the Scottish Societies that "sponsor" the events. It all falls on so few and those active few are getting older and older and the younger ones joining up are fewer still.

On this point, I agree with you 100%.

The bottom line is, however, that unless people walk in the gate and pay the admission fee and buy stuff from the vendors, the Games will shut down. This is what has happened at all three of the Games I originally listed,and all those Games did NOT have a focus on feelie-good pan-celtic whatever. They were Highland Games with all the stuff that you guys want to see....dancing, clans, athletics, pipe bands, Scottish music and so on.. Attendance plummeted, the organizing bodies lost big money, and they shut down.

Why? Personally I think it's because the Scottish Heritage market of people just got saturated. There were too many Games in the Bay Area. I doubt that Pleasanton's attendance will be that far down, as that the GranDaddy of them all.

On the flip side, since people have to have a draw at the Gate for the event to continue on, there's a REASON why the Ardenwood Tartan Day...with no bands and no dancers but lots of Ren Faire re-enators......and the Santa Cruz Scottish Renaissance Fair are doing well.

Why?

Because people pay money to go to them.

....and from a cold, hard cash point of view, that trumps all the notions of Scottish Heritage Societies and their visions.