Clan Donald tent assistance!

**Nathan** · 2nd June 13, 11:32 AM

Hi there,

I've decided to set up a Clan Donald tent at the Cobourg Highland Games on June 15th. There is no Clan society branch in my area and I mean to change that. The organizers of the games have welcomed me and the High Commissioner of Clan Donald Canada has given me the *GREEN* light to work the tent.

Unfortunately, it doesn't look like they have any materials that I can use to set up the tent.

I've been invited to take part in the March of the Clans at the beginning of the games and have no flag. Nor do I know what I'd need to do to make one. Any advice or materials would be greatly appreciated.

Otherwise I'm showing up with my kilt and a stack of membership applications.

N

**Father Bill** · 2nd June 13, 11:36 AM

Best wishes w' yer venture but I canna help.

**Nathan** · 2nd June 13, 12:14 PM

The title of the thread is supposed to read Clan Donald "tent" assistance. If a mod could fix that typo, I'd be most grateful!

**Liam** · 2nd June 13, 12:32 PM

Wish I could help, but Calgary is a bit far away!

**creagdhubh** · 2nd June 13, 12:58 PM

Best of luck! I've manned a tent for the Clan Macpherson Branch many times, it's always a good time meeting folks and fellow Macphersons.

Enjoy,

**Carlo** · 2nd June 13, 02:41 PM

If you have some Clan Donald tartan cloth, attach it to a pole and you have a flag recognisable to those who should (probably not how you would want to stand out

).

Originally Posted by Nathan

Hi there,

I've decided to set up a Clan Donald tent at the Cobourg Highland Games on June 15th. There is no Clan society branch in my area and I mean to change that. The organizers of the games have welcomed me and the High Commissioner of Clan Donald Canada has given me the red light to work the tent.

I wonder if "the red light" means he is ok with it. Because I would say he gave "the green light".

Anyway good luck with the tent. From what I've seen and heard on youtube you're gonna need a guitar and people will flock around your tent.

**KenB** · 2nd June 13, 04:07 PM

Nathan, I applaud your vigor!

Cobourg has a pretty good HG. I was there last year and it seemed to be well run, but not the largest of southern Ontario games.

I noticed that there were a few clan tents, but alas, no Clan Donald. It would be great if the Grand Clan had a "showing".

Nathan, PM me. I live not far from there.

**MizzouScotsman** · 2nd June 13, 10:04 PM

Originally Posted by Nathan

Hi there,

I've decided to set up a Clan Donald tent at the Cobourg Highland Games on June 15th. There is no Clan society branch in my area and I mean to change that. The organizers of the games have welcomed me and the High Commissioner of Clan Donald Canada has given me the *GREEN* light to work the tent.

Unfortunately, it doesn't look like they have any materials that I can use to set up the tent.

I've been invited to take part in the March of the Clans at the beginning of the games and have no flag. Nor do I know what I'd need to do to make one. Any advice or materials would be greatly appreciated.

Otherwise I'm showing up with my kilt and a stack of membership applications.

N

Glad to see you are getting into Clan Donald tent work cousin. I will give you what advice I can and take it for what it's worth.

In our tent, we keep it as simple as possible but you need a draw. People are not going to spend a lot of time, so you have to grab them with something. In Missouri, we use period weapons. We have a presentation that we give and these things draw kids...who in turn drag mom and dad with their cameras. We have some simple ones, a claymore, a dirk, a basket hilt, a targe, a lochaber, and a small viking like battle axe. Dads usually end up holding them too and letting the wife take their pictures. We always have crowds around our tents (we have 3 10' X 10' tents together).

We have two tables. One one table we have books that talk of the history of Clan Donald. A couple of books are general books like "Scots Kith and Kin" that people can use to look up their surnames and find their clan. On the other table we have a very large "table cover" that is laminated and has every surname that is a sept of Clan Donald (it is 5' long and 2.5' wide) and it is anchored to the table with some clips. We have a few items hanging in the tent that reflect Clan Donald. I will post some pictures that may give you an idea as to what we have. We have a few maps that have clans listed where they lived in, say, the 15th century etc.

The advice I can best give is to have fun. Enjoy talking about your ancestors and people will gravitate to that as they are seeking their ancestors. If you're excited about it, they will be too and you've hooked them as potential members.

Here are some pictures -