Quote Originally Posted by Arlen View Post
I think part of the problem is that some are really Highland games and some are Highland games AND Celtic festival.

I went to a straight Highland games, very small, in Jackson Hole, Wyoming last year and loved it. Everyone was happy to be there, it had the feel of games back in Scotland I'd been to/competed in and lots of Scottish Country and Highland dancing that people were actually interested in.
Tonnes of pipe bands from all over and all of them very good and very friendly. And the re-enactment group were mostly historically accurate which I LOVED.



However, here in Boise it's of the 'AND Celtic Festival' variety that I see complained about on the forum so much.


The entire thing seems to be set up like this:

Hugely obese guys who can't fit into a kilt and so have a tablecloth wrapped around them or a kilt pinned so that the two edges leave a good flash of thigh at the side competing in the games and not knowing what they are doing.

Bagpipers. More bagpipers. Even more bagpipers. All the bagpipers from different local groups scowling at each other then playing a massed pipe band they don't want to do together. Because they all HATE each other and have absurd amounts of in fighting.

Ten minutes of Highland dancing that very few people pay attention to.

Ten minutes of Scottish Country dancing that no one pays attention to.

Five hours of Irish dancing that everyone whoops and hollers about and celebrates.

Two hours of great folk music by local band/s that no one pays attention to.

Thirty minutes of 'modern' Celtic music (Swagger/The wicked tinkers/flogging molly etc etc) that everyone goes crazy about even though they do the same basic songs and show all over the country all summer and year after year.

A dodgy re-enactment group who span about 50 time periods and use made up weapons to do the same basic plot. (Bad guy tries it on with lady. Is surprised when she pulls a short sword from her skirt and defends herself. Distracts her then captures her. Is challenged by good guy and eventually beaten. They all use only Klingon weaponry and giant two-handed Claymores.)

A dodgy closing ceremony.




Now, don't get me wrong, it's fun and the organisers do it because it's what brings the money in for it to happen at all. But it's not like home at all and, while I'm getting better about it, sometimes I just find it kind of insulting to my country and heritage to see people use 'Scottishness' as an excuse to wear absurd outfits, get drunk and say it's almost as good as St. Patrick's day.
I can forgive the outfit malfunctions and the badly made tablecloth kilts and even the Sport Kilts worn over shorts and athletic socks. But the idea that all Scotland really amounts to is booze, fat athletics, Celtic Rock and Irish dancing is kinda insulting.

I thank you for this post. This is exactly my feelings on the matter--save that I'm an American of Scottish descent. Nevertheless, I think the "and Celtic Festival" and Pan-Celticism on the whole does a disservice to Scottish culture.

It's the lack of understanding of history and culture that breeds these things into pseudo-ren faires--which thrive on fantasy--and thus you get pirates and behorned vikings meandering about.

I remember this guy who would wear a very villainous apparently Conan-the-barbarian inspired plastic suit of armor with huge plastic bloody axe. The little highland dancers who took their picture with him look quite bemused.