The Williamsburg Scottish Festival – Oct 2-4, 2009

Tip from the pros: if you look at a festival itinerary and don’t recognize any of the words, you’re in for a good time.

Application: the Williamsburg Scottish Festival in Williamsburg, Virginia is rocking a schedule with stuff like balmoral, ceilidh, kirkin and albannach. Even as I wrote that, my spellchecker plugged a squiggly red line under every last word. Always a good sign!

So you might have to bone up on some vocabulary, but don’t let that stop you from checking out the Williamsburg Scottish Festival or any Highlands games festival in your area. No matter what language you’re speaking, the language of fun is always the same.

The Williamsburg Scottish Festival is a 3-day celebration of Scottish culture, history and entertainment. No flash-in-the-pan idea, 2009 marks the festival’s 32^nd annual event, and as these things tend to go, the event just gets better and better every year. There’s tons to do, but the festival is split into two definable parts: the festival and the ceilidh.

The festival takes place on Saturday, October 3, from 9:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m., and this is the place to see some of the most famous Scottish festival events. Highland games such as the famous Caber Toss (log toss), stone throw, tug-of-war and haggis hurl always make for a fun watch. In addition, the festival grounds will be filled with unmistakable trill of bagpipes as competing drum and pipe bands go head-to-head. The Highland dancing competition is another day-long affair.

On Friday and Saturday evenings, the ceilidh takes over. Though the traditional Gaelic dance and gathering is popular throughout the year, the Williams Scottish Festival version takes it to a new level with performances by national and even international Celtic music and spoken word entertainers. Highlights this year include traditional-made-awesome pipe-and-drum band Albannach and the only band I imagine has ever been described as both “Jethro Tull on Broadway” and “Red Hot Chili Peppers in Kilts”: Coyote Run. (Check them out on youtube)

Not enough yet. The festival has also taken a page from nearby Colonial Williamsburg and started hosting Reenactments and living history attractions. While not necessarily Celtic, the Sterling Swordplayers put on an excellent show of sword combat during the festival. Don’t miss it.

If it’s your thing, you can stick around to attend the Kirkin of the Tartans on Sunday. This unusual, kilt-draped church ceremony is really something else.

The Williamsburg Scottish Festival will be held from October 2-4, 2009 at Rockahock Campgrounds in Lanexa, Virginia (near Williamsburg). Ceilidh tickets are $10 each night. On Saturday, the $20 festival ticket includes admission to the ceilidh. Sunday’s kirkin is free should you choose to attend.

Learn more about all this madness here.

Traveling in? For hotels in Williamsburg, we again turn to the Crowne Plaza Williamsburg at Fort Magruder. It’s officially a Colonial Williamsburg hotel, but I don’t think they’ll mind if you check out a little Celtic history during your stay.

Have fun!

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