Glengarry Highland Games

On Saturday, Amanda and I decided to go check out the famous Glengarry Highland Games down in Maxville. I’ve always wanted to go, and Amanda has been before and said it was good, so we packed a lunch and made our way down there.

We checked out the schedule ahead of time and decided to go down for the Massed Band during the opening ceremonies at noon. By the time we got there and got parked, it was 11:30, so we wandered into the main area and setup our chairs across from the grandstand, getting ready for the main event.

It started with about 50 girls dressed in highland dancing outfits coming out and standing around the track. T|hey stood for a bit, and then sat down. Then they started the Parade of the Clans (this year was the year of the clans) and after a bit the Glengarry Pipe Band came out. Then they introduced the master of ceremonies, who introduced the President of the Games and the Governor General, along with the other people on the stage. After the President and Governor General gave their speeches, they moved the stage off and started the Mass Highland Fling. This involved the Glengarry Pipe Band playing, and all the girls around the track Highland dancing at the same time. After the dancing, they started bringing in the pipe bands for the Massed Pipe Band. They brought them in in 4 wings, one after the other. There were about 40 bands total for this, and filled up most of the track. Once everybody was in place and organized, they started playing. The sound was incredible. I have never heard that many pipe bands playing in synch before. While they play, the also march forward. When they reach the edge of the track, the first person turns around and walks between the other rows of players. They keep doing this until they are all turned around and facing the opposite direction.By the time they reach the other side, they have finished the song. They then played another song and repeated the same procedure so that they ended up in their original positions. They then left the field one wing at a time.

After that, we decided to walk about and look at the vendors and other events going on. A few of the vendors we saw were selling kilts at fairly reasonable prices. Most of them had just standard tartans, but there were a few that had a couple of the bigger clan tartans. Unfortunately I couldn’t find any MacFarlane ones anywhere. One of the vendors (British Isles Shoppe, from Ajax, Ont) seemed to have the best selection and price. We made the decision to get me on, so I started looking at the different tartans they had. Once I found my size, I picked out a few that I liked. Out of them, I chose the Black Watch tartan, a dark green and black one. This store also had sporrans and belts, but I didn’t really like any of them, so we just bought the kilt. We checked out a few of the other vendors to see if I could find a belt and sporran I liked. Next to where I got the kilt was a store called Beary Special form Cobourg Ont. In there I found a nice sporran at a good price, but didn’t see any nice belts. I went back to one of the first stores we saw (Wee Hoose of Supplies Inc, from Deep River) and they had nice belts, that were adjustable with velcro on the back. Here is what I got.I already have the kilt hose and Sgian Dubh from the wedding, so I’m all set now!

After I got all my stuff, we sat back down in our chairs to watch the games. The hammer throw was in progress when we sat down, as well as the highland dance competition. After the hammer throw was the caber toss. This was he first time I had ever seen it, and I quite enjoyed it. While that was going on, there was also some pipe band competitions as well. Near the end of the caber toss, there was the final contest of the tug-of-war. I’ve never actually seen a professional tug-of-war before, so it was neat to see. Below is the tug-of-war, with the caber toss in the background.After the games were done came the big Massed Pipe Band. This one had all 63 pipe bands that were at the games. |This time they came in 5 wings, and took up the entire field. They played 4 songs, and did the same marching as before. I don’t know if it was that there were 20 more bands, or that it was the closing of the games, but it seemed a lot better than the first one we saw. Below is part of the band gethering.