The Scottish Highlands Festival

[intheflow]

Yesterday usedtobesick and I went to the Scottish Highlands Festival in Long Beach, MS. I thought it might be good for some photos, and was not disappointed. Finally! Something other than destruction to take photos of in Mississippi!

There was all kind of food available. The canned haggis was a bit much for me to even think about trying, but the meat pies were yuuuuummy!





There were a number of activities, such as a tabor competition and axe-throwing lessons for children. (OK, that last was kind of strange, but no one was injured during the four hours we were there.)





There was a great band playing, called Paisley Close. They played a kind of celtic rock, all original music. They obviously enjoyed playing and performing!



There was a kind of mini-Ren Faire. OK, it was really mini, like four booths and one sword fight.



And what southern Scottish fest would be complete without classic cars and the Sons of the Confederate Army? :rofl:





In the end, I only took two shots that I really like, both dog-themed.

[NV Whino]

1. That is a very strange looking tabor.

Are they weighting the end these days? Seems to me as if that's cheating.

[intheflow]

2. I don't know.

It is Mississippi, so perhaps all the Repukes around here felt it was okay to rewrite the rules to suit themselves. :shrug: Didn't help them, though. All the tabor dudes sucked.

[TahitiNut]

8. It's a caber

There are no uniform standards for cabers specifying length, weight, type of wood, density, circumference, etc. In general, the cabers used in competitions vary in all these characteristics with each Highland Games event having their own set of cabers.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caber_toss

[NV Whino]

9. Oops

Caber. I knew that. :banghead:

[intheflow]

12. Caber, taber...

What d'ya expect from a Lebanese-Italian girl from New England? Hell, I don't even drink Scotch! ;)

[uppityperson]

3. canned haggis? why?

:hi: I do like the dog/kilt picture. Thanks for the pictures, looks like a fun time.

[intheflow]

4. We couldn't quite figure it out, either.

I mean, it was one thing to eat haggis back in the day when it was an aggriculturally based society, and it took a month to ride to town and it was eat haggis or die of starvation... then I understand the haggis thing. Otherwise, having canned haggis just seems like a new form of self-torture.
:shrug:

[uppityperson]

5. New and Improved Spam!

[regnaD kciN]

6. Let me channel the Scottish part of my ancestry and say...

"Wha' ye be talkin' about a 'tabor competition'? That great huge log Scotsmen throw is a caber." :grr:

(A tabor is a medieval hand-drum about the size of a tambourine. Look at it this way: if there really was a competition at throwing a tabor, I could probably participate without fear of severe injury. ;-) )

A few other quick notes:

-- If you look closely at the male bandmember of Paisley Close, you'll notice he's playing a bouzouki, which for some reason has become popular in Celtic music. Maybe it comes from "the Celtic part of Greece?" :shrug:

-- I recognize the banner from that meat-pie vendor! Believe it or not, those same people are regulars at the Highland Games up here in Enumclaw every July.

-- And what can one say about haggis? I recall one comment on how "haggis is the only food that was apparently invented on a dare." (Actually, it's not that bad -- it's just sausage. The only problem is that the recipie for haggis is well-known, while those who eat frankfurters or kielbasa are generally in blissful ignorance of what they're really consuming.)

[NashVegas]

7. Mike Myers

It was in an old SNL skit with Kyle McLachlan. Something along the lines of, "why does it seem like all Scottish cuisine was based on a dare?"

[Deep13]

11. "If it's not Scottish, it's crrrraap!"

:evilgrin:

[intheflow]

13. I live to torment you.

Kinda like the ghosts in MacBeth. :rofl:

OK, so I blew the whole tabor/cabor thingee. I'm going to blame usedtobesick. I'm sure he called it a tabor.

Umm... canned sausage or hot dogs don't sound any more appetizing to me than canned haggis. But then, I've never been much of a fan of eating anything that resembles intestines.

[F.Gordon]

10. You're more daring than I

:rofl:

And to think those idiots in "consumer safety" banned Lawn Darts.



And I'll have a Scottish Meat Pie.:9 It sounds yummy. And where do they make those giant Golf Tees that get tossed around?

Very nice. My faves are yours, but love the 3rd music photo.

What a strange mix of "stuff" going on at a Scottish Festival thing. :crazy: