The 30th edition of the Texas Scottish Festival & Highland Games took part last weekend. I am very happy we were able to attend it - we love live music and cultural events. Besides, last year, the rainy weather stopped us from going to Arlington and spoilt the Festival as well.
It all started in 1986 - the first Scottish Festival took place at Maverick Stadium. Since then, annually during one spring weekend, people gather to celebrate the Scottish culture and have fun.
Although 'music tents' were our main interest, we also visited other stadium areas as there is always plenty to see during the festival weekend.
- For Highland Games fans - there were sports competitions
- Clan tents - where you could find out more about a Scottish surname. We were glad to meet Clan Mackintosh representative and see the Mackintosh tent among other 'names'
- Food, clothes and arts stalls.
We spent most of the time at music stages - that was why, we did not manage to see:
- Scottish dance competition;
- Fiddle workshop;
- Shortbread contest;
- Scottish needle-craft history presentation
- Whiskey Tasting and Beer Contest - well, we skipped the two simply because we were not interested in liquor things.
All in all, many attractions and not enough time/ not possible to attend everything during one day.
Our Festival favorites were:
#1
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| Murder the Stout - Mr Hugh Morrison lead vocals and squeezebox |
The band plays Celtic rock - some songs very much remind me shanties, which I used to often hear when I lived in 'my' region of Poland.
#2
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| Cleghorn |
Cleghorn are a Celtic rock band. We enjoy listening to their music but it would be nice if they presented some new songs also, not only the same stuff again. Really enjoyable anyway.
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| Seamus Stout |
Unfortunately, we missed most of the performance by Seamus Stout. It was a pity as their version of traditional Celtic songs is really great.
Who else we saw/listened to:
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| Jiggernaut |
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| Tullamore - traditional music |
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| Scottish Thunder |
Scottish Thunder seem to be quite an interesting band. Actually, we saw part of their performance by accident, waiting for another group. Wish we had seen more of their show.
To sum up, it was a very pleasant day. The weather was cooperative - in the morning it was rather cool, but later the temperatures were really nice regarding the Texas spring.
We had a great time at the Festival.
To find out more about the Texas Scottish Festival and the musicians visit their websites:
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