THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, June 19, 1994 TAG: 9406170204
SECTION: CHESAPEAKE CLIPPER PAGE: 11 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ERIC FEBER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: 940619 LENGTH: Medium
The event's 16th outing - featuring Scottish games, music, bagpipes, drumming, dancing, crafts, art and competitions - will take place Saturday at Chesapeake City Park.
{REST} ``We started in a small way many years ago at Holiday Trav-L Park in Virginia Beach and stayed there for five years,'' said Eleanor Unger, president of the Tidewater Scottish Festival committee. ``Then we moved to the Botanical Gardens in Norfolk and stayed there for the next 10 years. But there's some construction going on there now, so we moved to Chesapeake.''
Unger is impressed with the new location and hopes to make it the permanent home of the festival.
``Hopefully, we'll be here for years,'' she said. ``The site is easily reached from all of Tidewater, and it has facilities and experience to handle large crowds and parking. Some of these festivals draw up to 20,000. Now, I don't think we'll attract those kind of crowds yet. But it does have a growth potential.''
Unger said the event attracts members of 34 different Scottish societies and clans, who show up and pitch their tents at the festival site. But the festival's popularity stretches beyond Scottish or Celtic lines.
``For every member of a Scottish society at the festival, there's 100 who aren't members,'' Unger said. ``If word about the festival gets out beyond the societies, we have good crowds. We get day-trippers who come from North Carolina, Richmond, Petersburg and places like that. We are an event more geared towards traditions and families, but we're a fun-loving bunch.''
Unger, a New Zealand native of Scottish origin, now living at Virginia Beach, assures that the festival won't be dull.
``It will be a Scottish version of Barnum & Bailey Circus,'' she said. ``Like a three-ring circus, we'll have athletics on one field, parades and bands on another and music in another part of the park.''
The festival will include the following activities and events:
Highland athletics including daylong competitions in the hammer, caber, weight and sheaf toss contests.
Competitive Highland dancing, Scottish country dancing and all manner of Scottish/Celtic music, including a Scottish song talent contest, massed pipe bands, Celtic folk singers and an appearance by special guest singer Christina Harrison, a singer/songwriter from Glasgow, now living near Baltimore.
1993 U.S. champion dancer Karen Fisher will demonstrate Highland dances and Master Piper Alexander McPhee will offer a piping workshop.
Clan Graham will be the festival's ``honored clan'' this year. ``We'll have Grahams from all over the place,'' Unger said.
Border collie dog herding demonstrations.
Children's activities, including a show by the Whoppa-Doodle Puppets.
Highland wrestling, Cumberland style. Local wrestlers from all over the region are invited to compete in one of four weight divisions. Participants will be given on-field instructions.
Unger said the festival's vendors alone will be worth the price of admission.
``It's like spending a day wandering down the streets of Edinburgh,'' she said. ``They don't sell your usual tacky, trinkety stuff. We draw the best of the Scottish vendors selling all kinds of Scottish and Celtics wares and crafts.''
Unger said vendors will be selling kilts, books, crafts, figurines, collectibles and many other items.
If you're a wee bit hungry, the festival will offer meat pies, fish and chips and other traditional Scottish/English snack foods along with an array of the usual American fare.
But will they serve haggis? That's the traditional Scottish dish of sheep hearts, lungs and intestines mixed with seasonings, suet, oatmeal and then boiled in a sheep's stomach.
``I don't think the Food and Drug Administration would allow us,'' Unger said with a laugh.
by CNB