Scottish Festival celebrates culture in Old Westbury

The Island Now
The Amityville Highland Pipe Band was one of several bagpipe bands in attendance at this year's Long Island Scottish Festival and Highland Games on Aug. 26 at Old Westbury Gardens. The one-day event highlights aspects of Scottish culture from dress and music to food and sport. (Photo by David Pollard)

By David Pollard

Seeing men wearing pants or shorts was not the norm on Saturday at Old Westbury Gardens.

The annual Long Island Scottish Festival and Highland Games took place there, and among the thousands in attendance, hundreds chose to wear a kilt.

The kilt, part of Scottish culture, looks like a pleated skirt that hangs just above the knee and is usually worn by men.

Judy Clock, 58, of East Islip, said she likes the way a man looks wearing a kilt and attends the event faithfully every year.

“I’m Irish and I love bagpipes,” she said. “This [Old Westbury Gardens] is one of the most beautiful places on earth to me.”

Dave Cairns, 81, one of the event’s organizers, was born in Scotland and wore a gray and black plaid kilt in honor of the event. The event went from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and was packed with activities, vendors, entertainment and authentic Scottish food.

“The music and the food is the big thing,” Cairns said. “The Scottish pies are some of the best.”

Cairns said the bagpipe bands are a big draw, but various Scottish agricultural-related sports like the caber toss, tossing the sheaf and putting the stone bring people out as well.

Cairns said they were all related to how things used to be done in Scotland, when farming was the primary way for people to make a living and community was built by throwing large stones used to build walls, throwing large bales of hay and moving long pieces of lumber.

“It was about testing your strength,” Cairns said. “With lumber, instead of carrying it they’d throw it.”

That’s the essence of what the caber toss competition is about, with the competitors being judged by how straight the piece of lumber falls once it is flipped. The caber, a large tapered pole, is usually about 19 feet tall and can weigh up to 175 pounds. The person tossing the caber is called the tosser or thrower.

For the second year in a row, Rob VonBargen, 26, of Lynbrook was the overall champion in the festival’s Highland Games competition, winning the caber toss and stone put and tying in the sheaf toss. His girlfriend, Kelli Hughes, 27, took the championship in the women’s division.

VonBargen said he’ll be back next year to defend his title. He said he enjoys competing while hearing bagpipes playing in the background.

More than winning himself, VonBargen said, he’s proud of what his girlfriend has accomplished. He said the spirit of competition and camaraderie is the biggest draw for them both, as they were once college athletes.

“I’m more excited for her,” he said. “This brings back a lot of the feeling of competing.”

Hundreds watched those who participated in the caber toss competition, including Brittany Richards from East Meadow and Ian Herrmann from Levittown.

“I’ve been coming since I was 6,” Herrmann, 24, said. “I’m a full-blood Scot and I have family across the pond and everything.”

Herrmann said it’s an enjoyable experience to bask in his culture so close to home.

“I love the heritage and all the Scottish food, which is very authentic,” he said.

Richards, 25, came out at Herrmann’s invitation and was glad she did.

“It’s very festive,” she said. “It’s interesting to learn about the culture.”

 

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