A Thought That Just Won't Go Away.

[ABG0819]

A friend of mine and I are of the opinion that North Carolina needs another Celtic/Scottish Festival/Games. Before everyone goes off telling me about Grandfather Mountian and Loch Norman and Scotland County ect. ect. Hear me out. I live in near Goldsboro, NC in the eastern part of NC. The closest festival to our location is nearly a two hour drive, and with my wife owning her own business it's hard to get out of town for an entire weekend.

So here is my questions. Has anyone been intimatly involved with starting a festival/large scale event? And would anyone in the eastern part of NC...let's say from Raleigh east be interested in forming a Scottish Society to help support such an event. Any ideas would be greatly appriciated.

Graham

[creagdhubh]

Perhaps you can contact the Scottish Society of Wilmington, North Carolina. I belonged to that group whilst I was on active-duty and stationed at Camp Lejeune in Jacksonville, North Carolina. I spent 5 years living in Eastern North Carolina and really fell in love with the area. My wife, a Camp Lejeune Marine as well, are planning our second vacation together in Chapel Hill, Raleigh, Jacksonville/Camp Lejeune, and the Outer Banks this July.

http://www.wilmingtonscots.org/

Best of luck!

[creagdhubh]

Here's another good link that may be of some assistance:

http://shsenc.org/

[ASinclair]

Great idea, Graham! This is my first year as North Carolina commissioner for my clan association, and when I was looking at the games in our state (to decide which ones to convene at), I noticed there don't seem to be any in the eastern half. I will be convening, this year, for Clan Sinclair at Loch Norman (it's big), Triad (it's my hometown), Grandfather Mountain (duh), and Scotland County (an awesome historic venue for a 1-day event). If you can get a games going over your way, I'd definitely want to convene there for my clan association. I think the links Kyle provided would be a good starting place for you. Good luck!

[ABG0819]

Thanks for the links. We defiantly want to start by talking to standing groups especially those that are in our extended area.

[ASinclair]

BTW, are you planning to do the kilted run in Raleigh this Saturday?

http://www.xmarksthescot.com/forum/f...-2014-a-81707/

You can register online up thru this Wednesday. It's only $5.

[ABG0819]

Due to poor planning on my part I will be incarcerated this Saturday...don't stress I work in a prison.

Graham

[azwildcat96]

Have you communicated your desire to the other two festival committees? They may be of assistance in helping you to set up another event (provided that it doesn't confilict date-wise with one of theirs). You may also look at the message board of the NASGA website, to see how much interest there is from other local or near-by athletes. Throwers are a group always on the look-out for new places to compete.

[cessna152towser]

I wish you the very best of luck. As a former Secretary and Treasurer of a Highland Games here in the south of Scotland I have to say it won't be easy. Very hard work but if the event comes off you get terrific satisfaction from it.
You need a good committee and willing helpers (Our Committee started off with around ten people and eventually dwindled to just four, but we got a lot of help on the day from our local rugby club members.)
You need to find a suitable venue that can be obtained at an affordable price.
Caterers - A restaurant, a stall selling burgers, haggis etc. If your games are likely to attract enough people the caterer will pay you rather than you paying them to come.
Transport - If the venue is out of town you need to hire a bus/buses to shuttle people to the games.
Heavy Athletics - Here in Scotland you need to offer good prize money to attract a high standard of contestant, minimum prize for last finisher £50, rising in £25 increments. You also need to pay the referee. Though I believe it is easier to find entrants in the USA.
Pipe Bands - Local pipe bands are usually willing to perform for a small fee. Perhaps you could hold a pipe band competition. Here in Scotland these are governed by the RSPBA and you need to register your competition with them, making the cost prohibitive for the smaller games.
Highland Dancing - Hard Work! You need to hire a stage. Then you need someone with a trailer to bring it to the game site. Then it has to be assembled. And dismantled afterwards and transported back to its owner. You need to pay the piper. You need to pay the judges. If you can afford to be generous with prize money you should be able to obtain a good standard of entries. Best to contract the organisation of piper, judges and the contest to someone experienced. There are people who go round the games circuit organising dance contests but, again they will chrage for their services.
Stalls - Stallholders will offer to come and sell stuff and you can name your price, though if you are an established games and can produce footfall figures from a previous year you are in a better bargaining position. Pitch fees can go a long way to paying for the athletics, pipe bands and dancing, but sadly many games have only survived by turning themselves into weekend markets with the games as just a side show.
Lots more things I can think of but need to go right now. PM me if you want any more advice.

[OC Richard]

Pipe Bands - Local pipe bands are usually willing to perform for a small fee. Perhaps you could hold a pipe band competition. Here in Scotland these are governed by the RSPBA and you need to register your competition with them, making the cost prohibitive for the smaller games.

I'm a pipe band person so not objective perhaps, but it seems to me that pipe bands are always a big draw for Scottish games/festivals, and look good in print ads, and sound good on radio ads.

I scratch my head sometimes when small Games don't put on a pipe band competition, but rather hire bands. Because if you put on a competition the bands come for free, more or less. The pipe band scene is about competition, and good competition bands will show up for the very act of competing. It usually isn't so much about the money; it's a hobby for these people.

For example there was one small Games (which will remain nameless) who said they didn't have money to put on a competition. So they hired three or four horrible street bands to 'entertain'.

Then they decided to put on a competition, and guess what? They suddenly had a dozen bands show up, all of them far better than the street bands they had been hiring, including some of the best bands in the region. One band travelled halfway across the country to compete.

You have to register with EUSPBA and use EUSPBA-approved judges. The expense is hiring the judges and flying them in. The same crew of judges will judge the solo piping and drumming competitions in the morning and the pipe band competition in the afternoon.

For myself, I won't attend a Games that doesn't have a pipe band competition.