You know that a university has real Scottish roots when the Student Union ball room is permanently decorated with tartan plaid crown molding. So it is the perfect place to host the US National Scottish Fiddle Championship. We found that after the individual competition, the musicians that had just competed against each other form an impromptu fiddle band to entertain the audience while the judges confer.
We like all genres of music, but we had never heard a Scottish harp. We were in the audience for the US National Scottish Harp Championship and saw this young woman win the Master's competition. We are now officially a fan of the harp when played at this masterful level.
We attended a Scottish Festival in North Carolina this spring, where the emphasis seemed to be on bagpipers. If you read that blog, you might remember that Denisa volunteered to be a monitor for the solo bagpipe competition. Edinboro had plenty of plaid kilts and bagpipes as well.
But because of our volunteer schedule in the April festival, Denisa missed the opening ceremonies that included the mass band made up of pipers from different bands (as illustrated by their different colored plaid kilts).
At our previous Scottish festival, Mark had volunteered with the "heavy athletic competitions." Basically that means guys throwing heavy objects. The highland games here were on a smaller scale, but they still had guys chunking a 56-pound bell over a 13-foot pole.
Another new experience here was the Highland Dance competition. We had no idea that people train and memorize detailed Scottish dance choreography to perform before judges. Because they all must perform steps standardized by the Scottish Official Board of Highland Dancing, two or three dancers will be in front of the judge at one time.
We found it hard to get a clear picture, because their arms and legs were moving so fast. We also thought it was interesting that instead of recorded music, they used live music throughout the competition. The bagpiper on the right hand side of the picture must have been winded by the end of the day.
Out on the lawn were demonstrations, including women that were happy to explain the art of spinning wool into yarn.
Our wildlife picture of the day would have to include the Clydesdales that were happy to pose for pictures. This colt was Denisa's favorite, and he loved being fed the tasty grass that was just out of his reach from the portable corral.
We also wanted a taste of Scotland, and we had a hard time deciding between the Forfar Bridie, the Haggis Puff, or the Scotch Pie. We were glad to visit with a couple of locals, who had chosen the Scotch Pie just like us. This was a good sign, since they are seasoned pipers that have attended many of these festivals. We thought about buying one of the bottled Scottish drinks, but they described the taste as a mix between bubble gum and Robitussin. As yummy as that drink sounds, we decided to just stick with water to go with our pie.
We enjoyed so many of the different parts of the festival, but one of our favorite things was listening to the concert performed by the Chelsea House Orchestra. We found out that they traveled from Chelsea, Michigan for this festival, as they have done for the last 16 years. The school's music director must have a very good program there, as he told us there were 180 students enrolled in his high school bands. The group today was made up of some of those high schoolers, as well as some college-aged alumni that still love to perform with this orchestra. Fresh off a concert tour in Scotland, their songs and their professionalism just made us smile.
As we finished another random day at another random festival, we have to smile that we are so randomly blessed! A stop at a local fruit stand for you-pick blueberries and some more fresh produce finished another great day of wandering!
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