Austin Celtic Festival

[Tobus]

Made the 2-1/2 hour drive to Austin today with the wife and one of her friends (who took these pictures) to go to the Austin Celtic Festival. They had lots of music on different stages, from pipe bands to various Celtic musicians, both traditional and modern. Austin being the self-proclaimed live music capitol of the world (or at least Texas, anyway), the music was great. Plus, they had a sheepdog herding exhibit, Viking reenactments, Highland dancing, Highland games, and all the usual stuff.

If you were there, give a shout out! I didn't see anybody I recognized, although one older gentleman asked to take my picture, and he seemed vaguely familiar. Perhaps he's a member here?

My wife eating her lunch on the hillside by the lake whilst I enjoy a post-meal smoke:




Here are my wife and I engaged in a conversation with one of the kilt vendors, who sadly had nothing I really wanted:




I was wearing my Colquhoun 8-yard 'tank', my very chunky hand-knit hose, red traditional garter ties, and belt and sporran made by my wife (just finished the sporran the evening before).

There were very few people wearing traditional kilts, which I found disappointing. Utilikilts and other modern-style kilts seemed to rule the day, although I'd guess that only 1 in 50 men present were kilted. There were a lot of women wearing kilts too (mostly modern kilts), which struck me as, shall we say, visually unfortunate. But hey - it's Austin. Normal rules don't apply there, LOL. It is a world of its own, but God bless 'em, they always have a good time.

One example of the typical kilted male (and random kilted female) at the festival:




Amongst the pseudo-traditional kilts, there were varying degrees of correctness/authenticity. I saw one older gentleman who looked absolutely fantastic, wearing a saffron kilt and well-coordinated hose, waistcoat, tie, jacket, and caubeen (?). Sadly, my wife's friend did not take his photo. But he was downright smashing, and by far the best dressed man there. Some other random kilted chaps:






Clan MacTablecloth made several appearances too:




This one was by far my favorite:




All in all, it was a fun day. The weather was great, the music was enjoyable, the ale was a-plenty, and I was in the company of two amiable females. My wife whispered in my ear at one point that a woman behind me had just taken a picture of my ****, which I found quite amusing!

I came home with several cans of Caledonian Kitchen canned haggis. Oh, and I tried my first fried Snickers bar at the festival.

If you were there, post pics if ya got 'em!