There's also the issue of making money. As in, if the event doesn't make money, it goes away.

This is where folks will point to any number of successful Highland Games and jump up and down and claim that if THEY can do it, THERE, then it must also work EVERYWHERE exactly like that. I hope that people see the fallacy of that argument. Just because something "works" once a year in one location does not mean that it will "work" in other locations exactly the same way.

There's also the question of getting people to put in the work to make an event happen. If the people who are willing to do the work of organizing an event happen to have backgrounds in Ren Faire, or other sort of thing that's not "true enough to the Highlands" for your taste, then it only stands to reason that the event will have a strong Ren Faire feel to it. This is the case for the Tartan Day event that I'm the AD for. There are six of us on the committee, of which three, including the president and the treasurer and the publicity guy, are all about Ren Faire and re-enactors. One other guy is into Celtic music and he's the entertainment guy. Our "Clan Chair" is a lazy bum and does next to nothing, but he's at least willing to make a dozen phone calls and have his name in the program and that's more than anybody else will do. I do the Heavy Athletics and a couple of us know the shinty folks, so they come out and have a tent and do a scrimmage at lunchtime.

So what happens? We COULD have twenty clan tents at this event, but we don't...we have 8-10. Great, do YOU want to volunteer to be our Clan chairman? Who do you know? Do the local folks, mostly older retired couples who maintain the tents know you well enough to come out and spend a day on the strength of your invitation?

The entertainment is good, at least considering the size of our budget, anyway, and Brian knows all those guys/gals. Athletics is *Very* good, 24-30 athletes out, and always 3-4 top caliber amateurs. We can't afford to bring in Pro's but I bust hump to make sure we have a good cross-section of athletes and plenty of gear that's in excellent condition. The Re-enactors side is always strong, as well.

Now, if some of you came to my event, you'd just hate it because it was polluted by those ren-faire people, not to mention the guy walking around in the incredible leather dragon costume. Me? I figure that they paid their rip-snorting $8 at the gate and brought their family and I'm glad they came out.