Quote Originally Posted by Alan H View Post
Strangely enough, the Campbell Highland Games is toast, and two years of steady fundraising through whisky tastings, concerts and so on hasn't covered the shortfall.....

....but the Santa Cruz Scottish Renaissance Festival has expanded from one day to two, on the same date that the Campbell Games used to occupy and only about forty miles away.

Highland Games are suffering, but the local professionally-run Renaissance Faire runs to overflow crowds for six-seven weeks every summer hereabouts. They had to move a couple of years ago because the previous venue couldn't handle the throngs. They make so much money at Faire that they actually hire professional actors, bands and so on to staff much of the place. There are literally hundreds of employees....not volunteers, EMPLOYEES....at the Northern California Renaissance Faire.

Meanwhile, the Games which celebrate Scottish Culture with Bands, Dancers, Athletics and Clans, take a huge hit. The Campbell Games have been in decline for 2-3 years and that has never been a Games with a lot of those useless, clueless, inaccurate Ren Faire type re-enactors that you so obviously detest. Livermore has had it's share of re-enactors, but the bands, dancers, athletics and vendors have always been much more prominent. In fact, for square footage of space used up, the Athletics has always been the biggest thing going at Livermore. Yet the Livermore Games has been in decline for two years as well, and last yearon Sunday when I threw on the field in 105 degree heat, it was really sad to see the vendors. Many of them didn't even make back their participation/booth rent.

At the Santa Cruz Games last October, I talked to two or three of the vendors, including Mrs. Farlanders friend. She didn't make back her fee for renting the space, and one other, much larger vendor was barely going to break even. And yet at that Games, there was only one re-enactment Guild present and they were shoved off in a corner. It was all about the Clans.... that's all they had room for. Our throwing area was tiny, and the main music stage was way down by the Clan glen. The smaller music stage was up by us throwers, and they didn't have much audience all day long.

Shockingly, the Guilds are a significant draw for the Dunsmuir Games. The past two years, a survey has been put around on the grounds of the Games. Amazing, but at least at this Games, the re-enactor camps scored near the top of what the people attending enjoyed most. Clan attendance at Dunsmuir is always quite small.

So much for your theory.
It takes a lot of dough to sponsor WUSPBA- or EUSPBA-sanctioned piping and drumming competitions; and, a lot of Highland games associations just don't have the gate or moneybag-supporters for what it takes.