Fergus Highland Games
On Friday evening I went to Fergus, Ont with the Oosterhofs (and later met the Patersons) to the Fergus Scottish Festival.
We have a great time watching all the different piping and regular bands as they share their music (some better than others). With great disappointment they did not play Highland Cathedral again this year. Jessica and I are going to write to them and ask someone to play it for next year.
Before the bands come out, there are some demonstrations of some of the events that will take place on Saturday. This year they did the pole toss. This was the youngest of the pole tossers. The man who tossed the biggest pole (I believe they said 25 feet long) was a dutchman by the name of Hans van something. We cheered very loudly for him!
As the sun goes down the pipers start to come out. They come through the 'castle' gates through a cloud of smoke. We always seem to be sitting on the wrong side and see them before the smoke... not quite the same. In fact I'm sure it would look pretty amazing from the other side of the stadium. ;)
The best part of the night was when John McDermott came out to sing (with a... ahem... lovely jacket made for him by a lady from Nova Scotia). He only sang a few songs but it was the highlight of the evening. He ended his section by singing Danny Boy - we all had goosebumps!
We have a great time watching all the different piping and regular bands as they share their music (some better than others). With great disappointment they did not play Highland Cathedral again this year. Jessica and I are going to write to them and ask someone to play it for next year.
Before the bands come out, there are some demonstrations of some of the events that will take place on Saturday. This year they did the pole toss. This was the youngest of the pole tossers. The man who tossed the biggest pole (I believe they said 25 feet long) was a dutchman by the name of Hans van something. We cheered very loudly for him!
As the sun goes down the pipers start to come out. They come through the 'castle' gates through a cloud of smoke. We always seem to be sitting on the wrong side and see them before the smoke... not quite the same. In fact I'm sure it would look pretty amazing from the other side of the stadium. ;)
The best part of the night was when John McDermott came out to sing (with a... ahem... lovely jacket made for him by a lady from Nova Scotia). He only sang a few songs but it was the highlight of the evening. He ended his section by singing Danny Boy - we all had goosebumps!The entire evening is ended with all the bands coming together on the field. A representative from all the clans present comes to put a coal on the hearth. This was done to welcome new families to the area and the tradition continues here. Then, with only candles held by folks in the stands and a spotlight on the castle gate, a lone piper starts playing Amazing Grace. Then all the pipers and bands join in to play more verses. It really is a breath taking moment.
After the pipers leave there are fire works (accompanied by pipe music of course) for the grand finale.
It is great fun and we look forward to going back next year (and we'll remember to sit on the far side, bring cushions to sit on, more water and batteries for the camera... maybe even a better zoom lens).
It is great fun and we look forward to going back next year (and we'll remember to sit on the far side, bring cushions to sit on, more water and batteries for the camera... maybe even a better zoom lens).
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