Meadville Tribune
EDINBORO —
EDINBORO — As promised, the 18th annual Edinboro Highland Games & Scottish Festival began with a song Thursday night and will end with an orchestra Sunday after four days of fun.
With free admission, the main event today will be on the Edinboro University of Pennsylvania campus. The Highland Games feature Scottish and Celtic music, professional and amateur heavy athletic competitions, Highland dance competitions, pipe band parades and competitions, Scottish and American foods, clan gatherings, more than 20 gift and clothing vendors, kids’ games and inflatable obstacle course, and various animal exhibits.
Today on the Edinboro campus in and around McComb Fieldhouse at the corner of Scot and Scotland Roads, the main portion of the games will be staged. Running from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., the Highland Games will be followed by the ceilidh dinner and music from 6 to 10 in the Frank G. Pogue Student Center’s Multipurpose Room.
The kilted mile race starts promptly at 9 a.m. today, traversing the campus loop. Melodic bagpipe music will fill the air all day long, as pipe bands and soloists march together and compete.
Highland dancers also will compete all day inside McComb Fieldhouse, while the burly heavy athletes toss various weighty objects on the back lawns. Those events include the caber toss (flip a tree!), hammer, stone, and 56-pound weights thrown for both height and distance.
An impressive array of more than 20 vendors will sell clothing, jewelry, glassware, and other goods while Scottish and American food vendors sell sausage rolls, meat pies, shepherd’s pie, desserts and more.
Also an impressive sight, many Scottish clans, along with Gaelic and Celtic groups and the Robert Burns Scottish Club, will have their tents pitched.
Kids’ games and activities will run all day today. Animal exhibits sure to delight kids and grown-ups will be highlighted by Clydesdales and Scottish sheep.
All events go on, rain or shine. In the event of inclement weather today, some events will move into the Pogue Student Center. Also, all events are free except the ceilidh tonight. For $30 per person, the ceilidh features a delicious three-course buffet dinner and music by the Chelsea House Orchestra and the Maidens IV.
Sunday brings two final performances of the Chelsea House Orchestra at Edinboro United Methodist Church at 10:30 a.m. and at Scotland Yards Greenhouse on Fry Road in Edinboro at 1:30 p.m.
n Complete schedule: Go to edinboro.edu/events/highlandgames.
