The 25th annual Texas Scottish Festival & Highland Games took place on June 3-5, 2011. I was there on Saturday the 4th from about 9:30 AM to about 9:00 PM. This is the second Highland games I have attended kilted, the other being the Salado games in 2009. I attended the Salado games, however, as a drummer in a pipe band. These games I attended on my own, and it's really the first time I've gone out in public kilted and not to a gig—albeit still to a very "safe" venue.

As most of what I had to wear is secondhand pipe band regalia, well, that's what I wore: my Inverness tartan kilt and cheap hunting-style sporran, black Argyll waistcoat, and white piper hose with Inverness tartan flashes. Jock Scot will no doubt be relieved to hear that, although I considered wearing either my diced Glengarry bonnet or tweed flat cap to complete the outfit, I ultimately decided to go bareheaded. Furthermore, although the band wears ghillie brogues, I have never been issued a pair, so I wore black dress shoes. I wore a white T-shirt instead of the collared shirt the band normally wears. The problems I mentioned in this thread have since been solved, more or less. I haven't had any problems with my garters sliding down or coming unclasped since I posted that thread, despite walking around for most of the day on Saturday. Also, on Memorial Day I was issued a pair of Custom LeatherCraft #110 suspenders, which have done the job well. I wear the kilt almost up to my armpits, and the selvage hangs to mid-knee, which looks pretty funny. This is the main reason I wore a waistcoat with it to the games. But now it looks like my kilt has no fell. At least I was able to ditch my belt. I figured with suspenders and a waistcoat, I didn't really need it.



This is the venue: the University of Texas at Arlington's Maverick Stadium. UTA hasn't had a football team since 1985, but it uses the stadium for track & field events, and for hosting high school football games and other events, such as this one. I'm not terribly fond of the venue as a site for Highland games, but I guess it does the job. However, everything related to the Highland games occurs in a ring around the football field. This year there was absolutely nothing on the astroturf except occasional pedestrians taking a shortcut.



And these are (some of) the contestants. They're the reason we have the Highland games, supposedly.

Much more to come. To be continued...