Depressing News on the Games Front

[O'Callaghan]

What is the purpose of the Potomac Celtic Festival?

Do I detect a slight edge of hostility to events that are celtic, rather then Scottish? To you it may be 'watered down', but not everyone shares such an opinion.

That aside, I'd just like to note that the Anne Arundel Scottish games are a casualty, and that Baltimore is down from two Irish festivals to one (although I suspect that the rivalry that spawned two was not necessarily a good thing).

[MacMillan of Rathdown]

Do I detect a slight edge of hostility to events that are celtic, rather then Scottish?

I've no idea what you've read into my post, but if you had said, "Can one detect a slight edge of hostility toward events that are Celtic, rather than Scottish?" I would have said "No."

[Jerry]

What is the purpose of the Potomac Celtic Festival?

To me, since they don't really have games, The Potomac Celtic Festivals and quite a few other gatherings are more like the old time rendezvous that the mountain men attended. They assembled to celebrate their heritage, trade (vendors at the festival?) and just to have fun. I haven't been to one yet, but I would also think that Native American Pow Wows are similar.

[PEEDYC]

I am loking forward to an ENGLISH Highland Gathering at Ashbourne in Derbyshire in England of all places on 18th July. Last year was due to be the 25th but was cancelled due to the park being waterlogged (Typical Uk summer) This year is to be the 25th+1 Gathering. From what I understand in 2008 there were around 10,000 people attended. The town really does us Scots proud by dressing their shop fronts in tartan and Scottish regalia to win a competition. Red Hot Chilli Pipers gig on Saturday night 17th July. Looking forward to that too.

[MacMillan of Rathdown]

Yes, I saw the photos (my eyes... my eyes... my eyes...), which was what prompted my question--

To me it looks like the PCF is sombody's idea of how to make money by renting a vacant lot and selling clan & club tent spaces. Definitely why I haven't gone and won't go in the future. Ever.

[Bugbear]

You inspired me to do a search, O'Callaghan. It looks like the last Highland games down my way were in Prescott; I keep seeing this site lately:

Prescott Area Celtic Society
http://prescotthighlandgames.com/

That page at the link has the Highland games advertised, and also gives a short run down of Scottish influences of Arizona. It says nothing, that I can find, on non-Scot, Celtic information. It's all about Scots.

I just happen to be looking for that kind of information, how the Scots intermixed with the Tribal Americans here in Arizona, so it has come up a few times in my searches lately.

Hopefully I can find some books on this subject. I might have to start a thread on it...

* Edit: And now I wish I had not started that thread or posted anything about it.

[cessna152towser]

The reality is that Highland Games are not popular spectator sports.
We tried to attract local families to our games this year by offering additional children's entertainments, a Craft Fayre, and a free shuttle bus to and from the town centre, and we also ran a very expensive radio advertising campaign. The weather was perfect, with sunshine and temperatures around 68 - 70f (20 - 21c). Yet the numbers were down even on last year's very disappointing turn out. A significant proportion of the people who did attend had come a long way, either because they follow particular competitors or because they follow Highland Games around the country. I met holidaymakers from Canada, USA and England who had picked up our leaflets in tourist offices. Those who did attend all appear to have had a thoroughly enjoyable day. The games brought much needed trade to the town from people who would not have come here had it not been for the games. Normally I might have been almost the only customer in our local Indian restaurant on a Sunday evening, yet after the games I could not get a table, and had to settle for a take-away meal, they were absolutely full with people from out of town, whom I believe were Highland dance competitors and their families. The games committee agreed we should keep the games going if at all possible as they bring much needed visitors who spend money in the town, yet the sum total of gate money, payments from traders and a fund raising raffle came nowhere near meeting the cost of staging the games. The only way we got through this year was with the help of a grant from Awards for All Scotland. So we will actively be lookng at how to raise funds in the hope that we can continue to hold the games again next year.

[OC Richard]

So very sorry to hear that some of the Games there in Scotland are dwindling.

I've heard people in various parts of the USA say similar things about their Games recently.

For whatever reason, our local Los Angeles area Games, held at Costa Mesa (in Orange County, only a 30 or 40 minute drive from LA) seem to be doing fine.

I don't know the specifics of gate receipts or specific numbers of attendees, but the Pipe Band competition was unusually strong this year. (The Games are held in May.)

We had three Grade One bands, two Grade Two bands, seven Grade Three, and eleven Grade Four.

Some of the bands, such as Alberta Caledonia (Grade One) and Edmonton and District (bands in Grades Three and Four), travelled vast distances to attend (the equivalent of travelling from Glasgow to Moscow).

[macwilkin]

Ted,

The article on the Prescott Games site does mention Hugo O'Connor, an Irish soldier-of-fortune who served as the Commandante of the Presidio at Tucson under the Spanish, if I remember correctly.

T.

[Alan H]

Here in California, the long-standing Loch Lomond Games went under after the 2008 season. A subset of the organizers put on a small one-day event in a nearby town at about the same time, and that did reasonably well.

This year the Loch Lomond Games teamed up with the Santa Cruz Scottish Renaissance Festival. Clan tent turnout was poor and only two bands showed up, and no dancers at all. Athletics was slim, but there were classes throwing both days, with a total of about 40 athletes over the two days. However, at least the event was held, at all.

I spoke with the main event organizer at some length as my Scottish Renaissance Re-enactment Guild hosted him and some other re-enactors for a lunch, and Michael said that Saturday's "take" at the door was about 45% over what it had been the previous year. I understand that Sundays draw at the door was about equal to what the Faire brought in the previous year, when it was a one-day event. The Renaissance Faire last year had 17 vendors. This year, the combined event had 54 vendors. There were about 8 professional touring stage acts that worked the grounds as well as the Guild skits. I overheard a range of "success" and "failure" stories from the vendors, so I can't say that all the vendors sold tons of goods.

The "combination" event was probably 75% "Faire" and 35% "Highland Games". We recruited three new young and enthusiastic throwers for the Games.

I personally would have wished for a ratio/emphasis more like 50/50 but the event supports what it will support and this year was a raging success. At least here in California, where we have lost three of our Northern California Games, one of them has found a way to survive by teaming up with a local Renaissance Faire. I, for one, don't think that is a BAD THING.