The 56th annual Long Island Scottish Festival and Highland Games is coming to Old Westbury Gardens on Aug. 27, promising a day of Gaelic culture and fun.
The event runs from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., with Scottish staples like bagpipes and Highland dancers, as well as traditional games for children and adults to take part in.
Clan MacDuff Chief Andrew McInnes, whose organization sponsors the festival, said it isn’t just for people with Scottish heritage.
“We’re just as much American as we are a Scottish festival,” McInnes said.
This year’s event will mark the 40th time it’s been held at Old Westbury Gardens, and as in past years, the festival will open with a procession of several traditional music groups marching from the mansion to the main stage.
The event will feature performances from the Cameron Music Ensemble, the Celtic roots band MacTalla Mor, singer Charlie Zahm, and musician and storyteller Robert Mouland.
For the games portion of the day, women will now be included in the caber toss and other heavyweight events, after expressing interest in past years, McInnes said.
The caber toss, one of the iconic Highland games, involves flipping and throwing a large, tapered log. Those uninitiated with the event can practice with a smaller caber and then move on to the main competition, McInnes said.
The game is said to have originated from the practice of Scottish lumberman, who needed to flip logs over rivers or chasms for crossing, McInnes said.
While part of the challenge is in wielding the heavy pole, McInnes said the trick to tossing it successfully is flipping it at the right angle.
“I always tell people to go onto YouTube so they can learn how to do it,” he said.
Children will also be able to compete in their own toss with a lighter, child-safe PVC caber.
Other heavyweight games to look forward to are tossing the sheaf (hay toss) and putting the stone (shot put).
The festival also provides an educational component in its cultural tents with scheduled speakers discussing topics like the history of the Gaelic language, notable Scots, and the origins of the bagpipe.
Lovers of Scottish food will be able to eat fish and chips, Scottish pie, sausages and haggis. Haggis is a pudding made with minced sheep meat, onion, oatmeal and spices stuffed into a casing.
McInnes said newcomers of the festival will leave with a better understanding of the culture.
“I think it’s a certain culture that’s had an effect on American culture, and they can come away with a sense of what Scottish people have contributed,” McInnes said.
Tickets are $20 for adults, $18 for seniors, and $8 for children and Old Westbury Gardens members. Children under the age of 6 are free.
Clan MacDuff 81 Ltd. is a nonprofit organization. Proceeds from the festival benefit Old Westbury Gardens and fund the following year’s festival. Extra funds are donated to charities like Island Harvest and Ronald McDonald House.
