Had a great time at the Taste of Scotland festival yesterday! Great entertainment, lots of good people came out to support the museum and have fun, and the weather was great (for the first part of the day).
Our fun was cut short by a rather severe afternoon thunderstorm that caused most of the vendors and crafters to break down their tents early, for safety reasons.
Nevertheless everyone I spoke to said they had a great time. Here are some photos of the event. First, these were taken by my wife, who was shepherding the children around town while daddy worked.
John Mhor MacIntosh Pipes & Drums on parae:
Franklin's Mayor Joe Collins in front, with members of the Museum's Board of Directors, with myself, behind him.
For some reason my wife wanted to take a photo of this guy...
Only one of my kids was kilted this weekend. They had a great set up for children's Highland Games, as usual, and a few of my kids participated. As this is a kilt forum, I'll just show you the kilted one, my oldest boy Josiah in his new St. Ninian tartan kilt he got this past Easter.
While my wife had our camera, I had in my sporran my handy-dandy new Droid smartphone that I just got. So of course I had to take my new toy for a test drive.
Here are some pics I took (and uploaded right from my new phone - ain't technology great!)
Many of the store fronts downtown were decorated for the festival. My favorite were the museum's next door neighbors, Outdoor 76 (an outdoor outfitters). They went wild with the blue and white window paint:
As I was towards the front of the parade with the museum's BoD, I got a chance to see the rest of the parade after we reached the end. Here are some of the clans marching -- if you look you can see fellow X Marker "Santa Wally" representing Clan Wallace.
Some of the wee Highland dancers and just behind them the reenactment group that was doing black powder demos during the festival.
I ran into Mr. Carter who I believe is on X Marks, though I don't know his user name (perhaps he'll chime in). It's always nice to see someone who shares a flare for tattersal shirts with the kilt! I had to compliment him on his dress. (Nice choice of claret hose with the MacArthur tartan kilt, as well).
Now all of the photos I've shared so far have been from the morning. To show you what things looked like this afternoon, I'll borrow from local photographer Bobby Coggins who was there documenting the whole event.
He also got some great shots from earlier in the day, but this is what it looked like around 2 in the afternoon...
And he captured this video, as well.... glad I was indoors at the museum during all of this!
Congratulations to you and to the town of Franklin on a wonderful event: a really inviting small town street festival, steeped in tartan, kilts and pipes... what's not to love?!
We had to get back to Savannah yesterday afternoon, so regrettably had to leave early. I hope the storm didn't dampen anyone's spirits.
For those of you who have never visited the Scottish Tartan Museum, you owe it to yourself to make the trip, and Father's Day weekend is the perfect time to do it. I know I'll try to make it for the festival again, and perhaps next time muster a contingent of MacArthur folk for the parade.
Sharp eye, Jock! It's certainly the best tie in my collection, if I could only remember where it came from......
Thanks for the pics. Looks like y'all had a great event in spite of the weather. KFCarter says "For those of you who have never visited the Scottish Tartan Museum, you owe it to yourself to make the trip." Well, I have been on motorcycling trips to Bryson City twice to ride the "Dragon." But, I just now realized how close Franklin is to that area. Next time, I'll be sure to ride down and visit. So, if a big old grey guy on a black Harley dressed in biker leather and a Kilt rolls up..............
well worth the trip
Next time, I'll be sure to ride down and visit. So, if a big old grey guy on a black Harley dressed in biker leather and a Kilt rolls up..............
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