2026 Woodland/Sacramento Games

[OC Richard]

For many years the Sacramento Valley Scottish Games & Gathering was held at the Yolo County Fairgrounds in Woodland, California (near Sacramento, the State Capital).

2018 was its last year, replaced in 2019 by the Woodland Celtic Games & Festival, which only lasted one year, due to COVID.

During COVID, to have a way for pipers and drummers to compete in solos, WUSPBA began sanctioning a slate of "Pipes & Pubs" competitions held in breweries and pubs across the western USA.

Blue Note Brewing in Woodland was one such venue, starting in 2023, and dubbed the NorCal Celtic Festival.

Not just piping and drumming solos, the event was in effect a small-scale Highland Games with Highland Dancing, Athletics, and pipe band competition, taking over a couple blocks of Main Street in old downtown Woodland.

I attended in 2024 and 2025 and thought the format, with no gate and no entrance fee, might become the future of US Highland Games.

However for 2026 the NorCal Celtic Festival moved to the Yolo County Fairgrounds as a full-sized big-venue Games.

Unfortunately the weather didn't cooperate and rain was forecast, on and off, all weekend.

This made it like the Games in Scotland, but hopefully wasn't an economic disaster for the organisers.

Here's our band, the Pasadena Scots, during one of the dry spells when the bands could take off their rain capes.

(We wear the California State tartan, essentially Muir in ancient colours.)

[SF Jeff]

I went to this one many times back in the day. Never made it up for the pipes and pub crawl but I'm kind of glad to see the old format back at the fairgrounds. I saw some band vids on youtube and definitely windy and rainy. I'll try to get up next year.

[jsrnephdoc]

Here's our band, the Pasadena Scots, during one of the dry spells when the bands could take off their rain capes.

(We wear the California State tartan, essentially Muir in ancient colours.)

WHERE did you find your furry friends? Could you perform next year with a unicorn or two?

[OC Richard]

They had a sort of mini petting zoo, those two Highland cows, set up for kids.

When we gathered for our band photo (near the petting zoo) the cow-minders brought them over to pose with us. How cool is that?