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June 1, 2006

Campus Recreation

Scottish festival returns this weekend

The celebration’s 20th year features music, whiskey tasting, games and more.

Story by: Emily Aberg

Contributor to The Shorthorn

Many Texans will celebrate Scottish heritage this weekend at the 20th Annual Texas Scottish Festival, hosted at Maverick Stadium.

The festival, one of the largest Scottish gatherings in the U.S., is a popular Arlington tradition — one that was ranked by the Scottish-American magazine The Highlander as “the number one Scottish festival in North America for entertainment and talent.”

Beginning at 5 p.m. Friday and continuing through Sunday, the festival will bring together Texans of Scottish heritage and enthusiasts of Scottish culture and history.

One of the biggest attractions each year is its music bill. More than 15 national and international Celtic folk acts will be playing all weekend.

“The headliners are hot this year,” executive organizer Ray McDonald said.

Brother 3, a Celtic folk band from Australia, will be headlining alongside the Canadian Celtic rock band Enter The Haggis. More traditional folk music will be played by North Texas Caledonian Pipes and Drums.

“This will be the first Texas appearance for [Enter the Haggis], so it should be pretty exciting,” McDonald said.

Besides the live music, another regular feature is a 9,000 square-foot pub, which will host whiskey tasting and Scotch-ale brewing competitions, as well as a shortbread tasting competition. Several traditional Scottish foods will be sold, such as fish and chips, meat pies, haggis, and bridies — pastries stuffed with ground lamb.

This year, the festival will host a kilted golf tournament. In the past, it has hosted other traditional Scottish athletic events such as the caber throw — a pole-throwing competition also referred to as “ye tossing of ye bar” — and the sheaf toss, in which contestants use a pitchfork to toss 14-25 pound sheaves of hay over a crossbar.

One attraction that makes this festival stand apart from other cultural festivals, such as the Scarborough Renaissance Festival or Oktoberfest, are the genealogy and history seminars hosted each year. Texans of Scottish heritage and Texas history enthusiasts might be able to trace their family tree back to Stephen F. Austin, Samuel Houston, or other famous Texans of Scottish descent. About 68 Scottish clans will be present at this year’s festival.