Highland Games - Day 2

I guess that the organizers of the Houston Highland Games had to take the hall for two days or something but the second day was really a bust compared to day 1. They had completed the competitions for field events and music and had almost completed all of the dance competitions. Most of the competitors and performers that came in from outlying areas or even out of state had gone home and not come back for day 2. Only the junior girls were left competing.



Since it was Sunday, almost no one came before 12. After that, there were some visitors but most wandered around for a bit and then left disappointed that there was nothing "Scottish" going on. There were still some real characters including a kilted Goth with rings and piercings everywhere, tattoos, jack boots and a black kilt complete with black sporran.

About 2 pm the organizers realized that there were a lot of disappointed people out there who had paid $15 a head to get in to see very little. They got a group of 2 pipers a tabor and a snare drummer out to put some Scotch back in the day. They went through a lot of different songs and some pipe and some drum solos. They were really good (watch the hands on the Indian drummer) but a little to late to save the day.

I got a lot of spinning done and managed to ply up about 250 yards of brown alpaca and 120 yards of white so it was not a wasted day for me.

Highland games in Houston

As a "find something to do" plan for a long weekend without my riding buddy Marni, I went to the Houston, Texas version of Scots Highland Games. It is being held in a fairground building that is usually scene to bull riding and calf roping. Today there was the sound of bagpipes, the sight of highland fling dance, drum and pipe competitions and the almost surreal sight of Texans in kilts.

I wish that I could have gotten a picture of the one in cowboy boots, a McCloud dress tartan, a leather vest and a ten gallon hat. What a cultural statement. I did however get a picture of the most ethnically diversified set of Scots that I have ever seen. Look at the picture below.

Close examination shows that the two drummers in the last row are a Korean and a Japanese, the drummer in the middle is black and the piper ahead of him is from India. The rest of the band was just as varied. I went and listened to them in the band competition and they sounded really good for a junior High school band.

I ended up getting into more than I planned. Contemporary Hand weavers of Houston (CHH) one of our spinning and weaving guilds, was doing a demonstration of Scots tartan weaving and they were short a spinner. I volunteered and ended up demonstrating wool spinning for over 6 hours. I'm going back tomorrow to do more spinning. We didn't have a lot of people stop by to watch but there were always several coming around to ask questions, mostly good questions. It was fun and I hope to enjoy it again tomorrow.