7 Reasons to Be Very Excited about Victoria’s Annual Highland Games

Hoots man! The Highland Games and Celtic Festival is coming to Victoria this Victoria Day Long Weekend. Grab your kilt because there a jam-packed line-up of Celtic-inspired events in store at Topaz Park on May 20, 21 and 22. Here are some great reasons to be excited…
 
1. 2017 marks the 154th time the Highland Games have been celebrated. Yes, 154th! The Victoria Highland Games Association had its first Scottish gathering at MacDonald Park back in 1938. Even during the war years of 1939 to 1945, the association continued its annual gatherings and donated all the proceeds to the Scottish war effort.
 
2. This is the largest Scottish cultural event in Western Canada. Some 25,000 people are expected at Topaz Park over Victoria Day Long Weekend. That’s a lot of kilts. And an awful lot of whisky.
 
3. There’ll be plenty of kilts. The whole event kicks off with the Tartan Parade through downtown Victoria the Saturday prior to the Games weekend. There will also be a kilted golf tournament and a ‘Tilted Kilt’ pub crawl.
 
4. You can go to school to learn about whisky. The event’s ever-popular Whisky Tasting School boast a selection of classes about single malt whiskies presented by ambassadors from a variety of Scotch and American whiskies. Highlights include a whisky and local food pairing, a ‘Nature vs Nurture’ oak masterclass and a Whiskies of the World session.
 
5. They will be ‘Tossing the Caber’. A caber looks a little like a large telephone pole that an athlete picks up and balances before running with it and attempting to flip it over. The Victoria Challenge caber is one of the hardest cabers in the world to master.
 
6. You can find your clan. There will be ‘clan tents’ for numerous clans, including the Barclay, MacDowall, MacDougall, Currie and MacLaren clans.
 
7. There’ll be music everywhere. Celtic bands performing at the festival include Black Angus, Blackthorn, Celtic Reflections and Cookeilidh, King Tide and Knacker’s Yard.
 
If you’re looking for the hotel near the Highland Games and Celtic Festival, The Days Inn Victoria Uptown is in the perfect location. Offering breathtaking views of the Gorge Waterway by day and the sparkling lights of the BC Legislature Building by night, the hotel is a fantastic accommodation option for a long weekend getaway in Victoria this spring.
 

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