The 65th annual Fergus Scottish Festival and Highland Games are just a week away – and bagpipes are in the air.
This year, the celebration of Scottish culture is expected to be the biggest yet and it is offering a whole lot of new events to go with the old traditions. The festival might now
be a senior citizen, but it’s one that still knows how to rock and how to party.
This year, for the first time since the early 1990s, the festival has every intention of spilling out of the grounds of the community centre and into the downtown. A whole new
gen eration is going to be surprised when it sees downtown performances and a parade that was once a big part of the festival.
The Fergus Scottish Festival and Highland Games is partnering with the Fergus Legion Branch 275 to bring back the downtown parade that had
all but disappeared.
Festival president Deb Dalziel insisted the parade not only be a big one, but an entertaining one as well – and she got her way.
The festival and Legion sought entrants with entertainment value – and then took the extra step of recruiting advisers Don Doyle, Don Trewleski and Lee Thorne, who organize the annual Fergus Santa Claus parade. As well, the Fergus Optimists, Lions and Kinsmen club members are volunteering to help.
Dalziel said the festival and Legion are going to have their own volunteers “shadow” the parade experts in the hope the event becomes an annual one.
In the future, festival volunteers will be able to run the parade without stressing the three service clubs.
“I love a parade,” she said.
“We don’t have enough of them. A number of us really missed that parade.”
There is going to be plenty of entertainment value. There are six bands so far and the Legion is arranging colour parties for each of them. Among the bands taking part are the Streetsville Pipe and Drums, Mount Forest Cameron Highlanders and the Sandhill Pipes and Drums. Plus, she said, the festival is fortunate there are two local groups taking part.
The Fergus Pipe Band is 84 years old, and the Grand Celtic Pipe Band is 10.
“To have those two thriving and growing is amazing,” she said.
As well, Dalziel said there are a number of groups in the parade who will be promoting special events this fall. The Elora Grand Squares will have a caller and promenade in the downtown. There will be a cheerleaders club, Scottish dancers, as well as the Girl Guides of Canada, who are celebrating their 100th anniversary this year.
Stuart Cameron will also be on hand again this year to open the festival and to entertain. He is the young est Chieftain in the festival’s history and the son of
the late and much loved John Allan Cameron, who was the festival’s Chieftain for many years.
There will also be an unturnable caber. It will be carried in the parade by some of those athletes who took part in the Heavy Events school. That caber has been deemed
“impossible” to turn. There is a $500 prize to the person who can do it, but if no one can do it this year, another $500 gets added to the pot each year, and eventually, all that money will be collected by someone who does the nearly-impossible. It might take years – or half an hour into the competition.
The parade is just the start for that weekend. It begins at 7pm at Victoria Park and will move through downtown Fergus to the Legion.
The downtown will be filled with activities on Thursday night. All the musicians performing at the festival will be will be performing in down town venues on the Thursday night, giving folks just a sam ple of what they can expect at the festival on the weekend.
Among the performers are Town Pants, Sultans of String, Tommy Leadbeater, Stuart Cameron, Liam Mc Glashon, Hadrians Wall, Fiddle Stix and David Leask and James McKie.
The ever-popular Friday night Tattoo will feature some – thing old, and something new.
Dalziel said festival organizers heard they should bring back the 48th Highlanders and Royal Regiment of Canada – so they did. The Highland Creek Pipe Band will return after its inaugural show last year.
This year Inverness, a Celtic rock band, will give the pre-Tattoo’s traditional twilight concert from the grandstand.
For Dalziel, one of the most awe-inspiring and emotional events of the weekend at the Tattoo is the Tribute to the Homeland and the rallying of the clans.
All day Saturday, hundreds of dancers will be competing in dozens of classes at one part of the grounds, while the Heavy Events will take over another section of the field.
Dalziel said organizer Warren Trask is excited about this year’s competition, and there will be a competitor coming from Norway.
This year, the Canadian Tug o’ War championships will be part of the festival’s annual competition. Dalziel said there will be at least 11 teams competing, which makes that event truly a Canadian championship.
And on Saturday night, in honour of the festival’s 65th anniversary, there will be an international fireworks competition with Fergus against its Scottish twin,
Blairgowrie. That free event is a spectacle of music and fireworks, and is the festival’s thank-you to the community for 65 years of support.
David Whysall, who won the world fireworks championship in 2008, has indicated he plans a spectacular show. He is preparing for the world fireworks championships that are in England just weeks after the festival.
The Sunday Avenue of the Artisans is a one-day opportunity to view and purchase the work of local artists, from jewelers to sculptors. The exhibit will showcase the best a vibrant artistic community.
Dalziel said she is so pleased that event is coming back after a successful first year in 2009.
“At the last count, there was 25 local and regional artists planning to take part,” she said, adding she is particularly pleased with the festival’s “cross-pollination with other events and community organizations. I think that’s so cool.”
There will be events on the main field non stop on Sunday, including a special Heavy Events for children, which will be guided by regular competitors from the Heavy Events.
There will be a Kiddie Farmers Walk and a special caber will get tossed, too.
Peregrine International will be at the festival all weekend and will perform a special falconry show on Sunday. There will be two parades of massed bands, at noon and later in the afternoon, as well as a grade 5 Pipe Band competition.
Organizers expect the Sunday to be jam packed until nearly 5pm.
There are plenty of other events going on, with something to match everyone’s taste.
Scotland’s Robin Laing will be attending this year and be offering “private nosings.”
He is known as the Scotch Whiskey ambassador, and is also a musician and author in Edinburgh, Scotland. He will be signing books as well as lecturing. In addition, he will perform his whiskey songs from his latest album as well as lifting “a wee dram” at the nosings.
The festival will also include traditional foods, a genealogy centre, tea garden, kilt-making lessons, sheep shearing, rocking pubs and a whole lot more.
Dalziel said, “My personal message to the community on behalf of the board of directors is, our event is such a wonderful journey for a family to take in.
“Take note of the dedicated volunteers. That’s what the 65th is all about. Without them, this festival would not exist.”
Tickets for the event on Aug. 13 to 15 are available online at www.fergusscottishfestival.com, or by telephone at 519-787-0099.
Tickets will also be available at the festival office at 1-181 St. Andrew Street East, until Aug. 12.
