Scottish Highland Games

My first visit to the games in 24 years. Last time I attended was when they were still having it in Santa Rosa. Went due to my daughter dancing with her dance troupe from Berkeley. The games fall into four major areas for me. First Heritage/​Name history with the gathering of the clans. Very interesting for those of us into family lineage and who happen to be of Scottish descent. Second, the Living History Area that is informative but very Renaissance Faire like in that adults are playing dress up and doing king and queen re-​enactments and also battle re-​enactments. It’s fascinating from a historical perspective but eye rolling from a ‘my god this guy waits all year for this” perspective. Third is the food, which is more British than Scottish, but they do have a whiskey tasting space. Fourth is all the other cultural things i.e. the dancing, bagpipes, traditional music, sporting events, etc… it can and is alot of fun. Being in Pleasanton, it can get really hot and dry, but there’s plenty of shade and most people seem to have a good time. There’s things there that seem out of place, i.e. the birds of prey, but people seem to like it.
Not something I would go to every year, but maybe every few years.

I came here as an aid for a bunch of elderly adults for the Scottish Heritage Festival last July. All in all, while the festival wasn’t a total waste of this non-​Scottish chick’s time, it wasn’t a terribly great or authentic festival.
Pros: The birds of prey exhibit, the sheep herding demonstration, and the traditional Scottish games were cool. The bands were good (although only one was actually an authentic Scottish group), and the two rooms of the estate that were wheelchair-​accessible seemed nice.
Cons: No authentic Scottish food, and the food there was expensive, with long lines. Almost no shade anywhere to be found, and a lot of the fair wasn’t very wheelchair-​accessible. I didn’t feel like I really learned a lot about Scottish cultural traditions from this festival — most of it was just the stereotypes of Scottish people (bagpipes, the clothing, the games). A lot of what was there seemed really random, such as some non-​Scottish cars randomly placed towards the end of the fair.
Also, $ 12 for adult admission?! I got in for free because the program I volunteered for paid for me, but I’d have been pretty pissed to have paid more than $ 5 or so for this. I ultimately did have a pretty fun day hanging out with the adults and other volunteers while watching the animal exhibits and games, but the festival as a whole was pretty lacking for the cost.

Quite a nice little day out. Ironically, it’s my first Highland Games so I can’t compare. Definitely it was fair-​food which is always un-​inspiring (chicken cornish pasties? hmmm) — but the games were fun to watch with plenty of brawny men to stare at heaving cabers and such like. The pipe bands were fantastic — but the standout were definitely the Bushmills pipeband. Somehow we moved from Scottish Games to Celtic somewhere in the middle. Anyway.
What else? Well, there was a fabulous bird of prey area — and there were a lot of people dressed up in varying garb. Although I didn’t see anyone dressing up from the Trainspotting era — Scottish culture clearly died out shortly before the 18^th century. The American pseudo-​Scot who was clearly upset at the reference to his kilt as a skirt… that tickled me. I didn’t see the sheep dog demonstration — although I did see some aimless sheep. There was a whisky demo of various Glenmorangies — had I not been riding, I probably would have tried that out and quite a few different Celtic bands of varying quality. The estate is quite nice — and the house is an entertaining wander for half an hour or so.
Definitely a good fun day out and will probably go again next year. I heard a few other Scottish tones but from the reception I got when I did open my mouth, we were all keeping pretty quiet!

Overall, it was pretty interesting, but I can’t give it more stars for the complete lack of Scottish food. There was only one food stand to speak of and it was British — very good, but no Haggis, Scotch eggs, etc.
The games, beer and birds of prey were fantastic.