Why so serious?

[Zardoz]

Well sheesh!
My thing is that Highland Games aren't Ren Faires and my ancestors and my personal family history isn't a fantasy game to escape the daily struggles of life. I'm all for Ren Faires being Ren Faires... but cultural gatherings should be just that.

I see a couple of similarities between Highland games and renfaire, but not as cultural events, it's about the attitude of some of the partrons.

I really think/ hope that everybody at a Highland games, Burn's Supper, Tartan Day , or most any other Celtic themed event is there to have fun and escape the daily struggles of life. But I know that there are some folks there that are failing to have fun because the are taking the whole thing too seriously. At faire it's the 'garb nazis' running around pointing out what they see as 'non-period'. And it seems we have some of the same attitude in the Highland games world too, 'kilt police' notwithstanding!

Really, the thing folks do at Celtic events I find most annoying is bicker about the clan feuds their ancestors might have had 400 years ago! Listening to somebody who's last name happens to be MacDonald fume about everybody that walks by wearing a Campbell tartan is just sad to me, so indeed, why so serious!