Scottish Festival Peeves?

[Squeaky McMurdo]

Or the ones that try to tell you "You're not authorized to wear that tartan because [insert lame reason here]"

[macwilkin]

Was Spock there checking out the historical inaccuracies?

OT but not so much OT.
In a show called Big Bang Theory, one of the characters goes as a trekky to a ren fest to basically make fun of the historical inaccuracies.

here's the clip
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gt4j0TXaj6c

They were "reenacting" one of the many episodes where the crew of the Enterprise landed on a planet that looked just like Civil War America/Prohibition-era Chicago, etc. They were "keeping in character", as we would say, but the sad thing was it was at a living history event where quite a few of J.Q. Public were there to learn history.

Live long and prosper,

Todd

[Semiomniscient]

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.

[Vegan Scot]

Not to point fingers or argue but I'll throw in my two cents on this.

Also, just playing devils advocate here, it is not OK to say no to the skinheads but say pirates, faeries, and drunks are welcome to have fun in their own way. We are all, no matter how hard we deny it, judgmental in our own ways. I remember when I was a kid the local biker club started coming to our local games. Guess what, they came had a picnic, competed in some events, and didn't bother anyone. I still remember hearing allot of remarks about what "those people" are doing here.

My opinion is that there's a difference between a local biker club which might have a negative image based on uninformed public perception and a group which openly displays and/or advocates racist or bigoted behavior. In my book no tolerance should be afforded the intolerant, especially at an event which is privately sponsored and charges admission. If they want to have a White Supremest Celtic Pride Festival, they can have at it, but as far as I'm concerned: Not At My Games.

I wonder why, much like the various Kilted at work/graduation threads, it is just fine to do what you want to Scottish culture, but if I did the same at any other cultural event I would be publicly stoned for offending other peoples national origin.

My stab at this would be that most people, at least in the States, don't treat Scottish culture (or culture from most any Western European area) with the same egg-shell walking as other cultures because other cultures are relatively new introductions to our social awareness. It's only been recently that we have come to accept and embrace other cultural traditions and as such there is, or ought to be, an amount of reticence to make light of those traditions, intentionally or otherwise. Scottish/British/Western European culture however has been the standard in North America for the last 400 years and as such is more prone to disregardful familiarity. Again, just my opinion; I'm no sociologist.

[robthehiker]

I wore a kilt to a pirate festival. I wonder if they're griping about me right now?

[OC Richard]

I've been to a few Highland Games in Scotland, and I've been going to Games here in the States for 35 years, and I might point out that back in the 1970's there was less difference between Scottish and US Games than there is now.

Back then the US Games I attended were pretty much ONLY about the traditional Highland Games things. People walked about in traditional Highland Dress. There were the athletics, and Highland Dancing, and Piping, and perhaps sheep herding. Period. The merchants sold tradtional Highland Dress and ceramic Loch Ness Monsters and shortbread and little else.

All in all very much like the Games I've been to in Scotland in recent years.

For whatever reason, over the years Highland Games in the US have become more diffuse and might be called Highland/Irish/Celtic/Renaissance/Alternative Lifestyle festivals, almost a blending of a traditional Highland Games with a Ren Faire and the Seattle Folklife Festival perhaps.

[artificer]

I wore a kilt to a pirate festival. I wonder if they're griping about me right now?

I just wore the kilt to a pirate festival too. I think the difference is that the kilt is an article of clothing, dressing like Captain Jack, or a fairie, or Conan IS a costume.

We can wear kilts nearly everywhere, dressed up or down, in true highland finery or with a rugby shirt and boots. Captain Jack will always be Captain Jack - a costume (unless you happen to be a late 18th c pirate)

[robthehiker]

Captain Jack will always be Captain Jack - a costume (unless you happen to be a late 18th c pirate)

Ah, there's the rub. I think some of them just MIGHT be convinced that they are!



edit: that should have said "Argh, there's the rub"

[Geoff Withnell]

It's one of my peeves too, but a thought occurred to me today as I was driving home. How many of us have worn our kilts to a Renaissance Faire? I wonder if these people see that and think the two worlds go together. In other words, if we wear kilts to the Ren Faire, are we not somehow inadvertently inviting them to wear their costumes to a Scottish event? They may think so. After all, a kilt is hardly a Renaissance costume and really doesn't fit in with the genre (well, maybe the earliest belted plaids might just squeeze in the later years of the Renaissance, but you get my point).

I dunno, it's just something to consider.

I wear my kilt to RenFaire because that is what I wear, not because it is a costume.

Geoff Withnell

[Tobus]

I wear my kilt to RenFaire because that is what I wear, not because it is a costume.

Geoff Withnell

I understand. My point, though, was about their perception of it. They see a lot of kilts at Ren Faire (i.e. more than they see in norml everyday life), so they perceive it more as a costume than regular clothing. And they probably make the leap of logic to assume that if a kilt fits in at Ren Faire, then a Ren Faire costume should fit in at a Scottish festival. Right or wrong, that's just the way it is.