Highland Games in England 2016

[tpa]

Indeed. There are some very successful "real" Highland Games which are actually held in the Highlands.
A few "Highland Games" held in the Scottish Lowlands manage to be sustainable thanks to consisting mainly of funfairs and markets for all types of general goods with the actual Highland Games being very much a subsidiary part of the proceedings.
Here in the Southern Uplands various attempts to establish Highland Games such as our own Hawick Highland Games or the Border Gathering in Dumfries have come and gone after a few years as there was neither the public interest in traditionally Highland activities nor the population base to support large open air markets.

Quite so. I believe that the success of Harpenden is primarily attributable to population base but also the highland element is not prioritised in terms of activities. For me, Ashbourne has a much better concentration on the spirit of the Highland Games, even the stalls have a greater Scottish flavour and the commentary is informative and interesting. Sadly it does not have the population base and, as a consequence, the entry fees as well as travel costs for many are higher, so like many others struggles to be financially viable. Hopefully Ashbourne will be back next year.

[samurai69]

I competed at the Gosling games this past weekend and the layout of the comp was great from a competitors point of view but not so good from a spectators point as friends couldnt really come round enough to see me compete at the points i was throwing at, also very limited in the way of stalls etc for the spectaotrs that would maybe have enjoyed some highland themed stalls

as you say the harpenden one is part of a bigger event, i had a short chat with Alisdair that puts it on and one or tow of the guys that also compete at harpenden show and as its part of the rest of the event works well