2015 Houston Highland Games?

[ShaunMaxwell]

Is there to be no Houston Highland Games this year? I looked for dates on the HHGA website, and none are listed.

Can someone in the know post an update?

[Zardoz]

No, there will not. The organisation sort of fell apart, again.

[ShaunMaxwell]

Thanks, Zardoz. Sorry to hear that.

SM

[ShaunMaxwell]

After a bit more searching for news about the Houston Games, I found this on the organization's Facebook page:

The Board of Directors of the Houston Highland Games Association regret to announce that the 2015 Houston Celtic Festival and Highland Games has been suspended.

In order to fulfill our fiduciary duty, the board felt it could no longer support the format of a large festival which has had a financial lost the past two years and was a drain on our limited group of dedicated volunteers.

This is no way means that we are "going away", we will just be changing the direction in how we fulfill our non-profit mission to promote the heritage and contributions of the Celtic nations. We hope to incorporate aspects of the Festival into smaller, more frequent events during the year. We will also continue with our school education programme started last year.

A Q&A meeting will be announced in the next few days. We value your input and hope you will continue to support the organization and its activities in the future.

Sounds as though it's not just cancelled this year, but gone!

[Jack Daw]

There were a lot reasons for not being able to continue, not the least of which was an expensive venue that no one really liked. It's easier/cheaper for such an event to be staged in a much smaller Texas town, because that community rallies around any type of festival that draws a crowd and helps local businesses. In Houston, there is so much competition for festivals that the city of Houston couldn't care less whether there was a Highland games or not. So, no free use of park land, etc. The St. Patrick's Day parade is the extent of it.

[cck]

Houston has a lot of suburbs. Surely one would like some business/attention. It is a shame that this country's 4th largest city is unable to put on such an event.

[cizinec]

I wonder if the guys out at No Label brewery in Katy would host something. They have a huge space, but they may not have enough room for games. We used to go out there every nice weekend after a two-hour workout. They go from noon to Three and also host a crawfish festival. They host local music almost every Saturday, so I'd be willing to bet they'd be willing if not very motivated to do something with y'all.

[cizinec]

I should add, there are a lot of families with kids there and my son wore his kilt there many times.