By Sheldon Spackman

Highland Games

A Scottish heritage celebration this weekend at Westerner Park

Jun 21, 2019 | 5:35 PM

The kick-off to the Highland Season in central Alberta takes place at Red Deer’s Westerner Park this Saturday.

The 72^nd Annual Red Deer Highland Games is described as an integral part of the community’s identity and a well-loved event at the start of the summer season.

Event spokesperson Ben Arthur says the event is really a Highland festival.

“We take over the infield of the Westerner chuckwagon’s track there, so we have Highland Dance, Highland Heavy Athletics, we have the piping and drumming and then we have a bunch of smaller entertainment things,” he explains. “We have LARP (Live Action Role-Playing), we have the Red Stags, they come in and Scottish country dancers come in and we have cultural foods, cultural beverages, cultural vendors, lots of exciting things.”

According to the Red Deer Highland Games website, there will be nine pipe bands, 38 individual dance events, 35 individual piping and drumming events and 28 heavy event competitors.

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Arthur says the food however is always a fun element as well.

“We have haggis sliders this year,” he exclaims. “In the morning we have Scotch eggs, which is a real cultural dish for Scotland and then we also have Scotch pies which I would say are representative of the most-popular cultural dish of Scotland, just because haggis has this stigma. If you look at the traditional way that haggis was prepared once-upon-a-time, that’s what scares people off but today, it’s made very tamely in legitimate meat shops where they can’t use all that extra stuff that you read about on the internet.”

The Highland Games begin at 8:30 a.m. with Heavy events that run all day, Band events starting at 2:00 p.m. and wrap-up with Massed Bands starting at 4:30 p.m.

For tickets or more information, visit www.reddeerhighlandgames.com.