23rd Annual Texas Scottish Festival

[Morris at Heathfield]

Sorry for the long delay, but I'm back from Scout Camp now. I didn't see any kilts there, but I did see one pith helmet. ith:

The 23rd Annual Texas Scottish Festival was a week ago, from the 5th to the 7th of June. I showed up on Saturday the 6th about a quarter to 1:00 and left sometime around 8:00. As soon as I was inside Maverick Stadium I made a brief reconnoiter of the area, after which I arrived at the Glengarry Tent with several minutes to spare.

The North Texas Caledonian Pipes & Drums



Pipe Major Don Shannon, a native of Northern Ireland, is at the microphone. He asked if there were any Irish present in the audience. I don't consider myself particularly Irish, so I didn't raise my hand. Next he asked if there were any Scottish present. Well, I was at a Scottish Festival, so I decided I was Scottish enough to raise my hand. Then he asked if there were any English present. If the shoe fits.... Apart from myself, I saw one of the band members who wasn't on stage raise his hand. If anyone else raised a hand, I didn't see it. As you might expect, the pipe major's last question got quite a rise out of the audience.



The drum section (apart from the tenor drummer) is all wearing shades, for some reason.



The pipers on stage right.



The pipers on stage left.

I had brought enough spare change to buy a tie, in case I found one I wanted. My reconnoiter didn't turn up anything that I particularly wanted, so I purchased an NTCPD CD instead: "A New Beginning"

[Macman]

The drum section (apart from the tenor drummer) is all wearing shades, for some reason.

Their eyes are probably sore from the night before. Thanks for posting the pics!

[Dardanelles]

Great stuff, i often wear shades while playing the pipes.
Its a bit of a trend now.
Thanks for the photos.
Danny.

[Morris at Heathfield]

After the show was over, I walked past the North Athletic Field to visit some of the clan tents.



Weight for distance and someone about to lift a caber in the background.



These are the only two pictures I took of the North Athletic field. I was more interested in other things. Also, I have the excuse that my camera batteries had died by the time I stopped to watch the caber toss later in the day.



A Campbell (?) in front of the Stewart tent. And there's kscaddo in his Stewart of Appin kilt. Only, I didn't know it was him when I took this picture.



Clan Donnachaidh. I didn't actually stop by the tent. In fact, the only clan tents I stopped by were the Campbells, the MacDonalds, and the Stewarts.



I stopped by the Campbell tent and took a brief look at a book called The Great Feud: The Campbells & the Macdonalds by Oliver Thomson. Looks like it might be interesting. Since I mentioned that I had Campbell ancestors at the MacDonald tent last year, I decided to mention that I had a McDonald ancestor that I knew of at the Campbell tent this year.



The MacDonald tents. On this side is the Clan Donald Society of Texas. Around the corner (where the flag of St. Andrew is) is Clan Donald USA. At Clan Donald USA they had a map showing the extent of the Lordship of the Isles over time.

[Aldisimo]

Really nice photos. Thanks for sharing your weekend with us!

[SFCRick]

nice pics, a lot of Clan tents there

[Morris at Heathfield]

I made sure to be at the Glenuig Tent at around 2:00 for the Celtic harp performance.



Stage right, before the performance began.



Center stage during the performance. The woman wearing the blue lei was apparently the instructor. She kept switching between the two blue harps. She had her students come forward to play one of the blue harps while she played the other.



Stage left.



"Greensleeves".



This woman was playing a clàrsach with wire strings.



The whole stage. I didn't see them selling CDs, fortunately; otherwise I would have had buyer's remorse for getting the NTCPD CD. (The only Celtic harp albums I have are on cassette tape.)

[Morris at Heathfield]

I saw some of the solo pipers piping in the southwest corner of the stadium complex. Two or three of them were wearing the same tartan, so I took it they belonged to a pipe band. It was not the Hunting Robertson, so they weren't members of the NTCPD. I couldn't quite identify the tartan, but I thought it began with an "s". (I was undoubtedly thinking of the Sinclair tartan; however I was wrong. More about this later.)



This Gold Brothers reseller had Campbell of Argyll kilts in stock.



I was a bit tempted by these Campbell of Breadalbane ties, but that wasn't what I had intended to purchase, and by this point I had already bought the CD.

[GMan]

Wonderful shots!

[Morris at Heathfield]

There were only about half as many Highland dancers this year as last year, and perhaps for this reason the Dance Tent was moved from the football field to the southeast corner of the stadium. Unfortunately, that put it near the Glenfinnan Tent, and there was often a clash between the piping and the music coming from the Glenfinnan tent. That can't have helped the dancers' performance. Of course, I'm sure my camera didn't help much either.



The dancer on the left is wearing the only Dress Blue Buchanan kilt I saw this year. Last year there were at least three.



Three members of the NTCPD watching the performance.







I recognized the dancer in black and white from last year.



I think the dancer on the left knows her picture is being taken.