Charleston celebrates Scottish Heritage at the 38th annual Scottish Games and Highland Gathering on Sept 15, 2012. This festival has it all from athletics, to music and of course dancing.
Scottish heritage is something many Americans celebrate, which might be one of the reasons why this festival is so popular in South Carolina. The number of Americans of Scottish descent today is estimated to be 20 to 25 million, (up to 8.3% of the total US population), and Scots-Irish, 27 to 30 million according to Wikipedia. The Scottish influence is especially strong in South Carolina.
This festival offers has a little bit of everything and is great fun for the whole family. Here you can enjoy Scottish heavy athletics, from caber toss to hammer throwing and much more. Heavy athletics is really fun to watch. The festival even holds one of the largest drum and pipe competitions in the southeast! The award-winning City of Charleston Police Pipes and Drums is the host band for the Charleston Games.
During the festival the music from more than 25 different bagpipe bands will echo through Boone Hall Plantation. The Highland Dancing ates back to the 11th and 12th centuries and in combination with the music, you will feel as if you have unexpectedly left South Carolina and are now visiting Scotland. There will also be Scottish Country Dancing & Fiddling, and Celtic rock bands dressed in kilts. Another popular event is the The Border Collie Demo. Border Collies are intelligent and beautiful dogs. As a matter of fact, it has often been said that without the Border Collie, there would be no sheep industry.
As icing on the cake, there’s of course dancing as well. For the complete schedule and tickets, visit www.charlestonscots.org. The event takes place on September 19 from 9.00 am to 5 pm at Boone Hall Plantation, Charleston.
