Scottish dancing and athletic games will be a mere stone’s throw from downtown Blaine during the Bellingham Scottish Gathering on Saturday, June 7.
The festival will bring 150 competitors across the Pacific Northwest and B.C. for Scottish dance, athletic, drumming, and bagpipe competitions. The festival will be held from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. at Blaine Marine Park, with the strength competitions taking place on Semiahmoo Spit. A boat will transport attendees between the the park and spit.
The festival will have a vendors market selling everything from jewelry to clan booths and a Scottish storyteller. McKay’s Taphouse will host the beer garden, while food vendors serve up burgers, hot dogs and even haggis, the national dish of Scotland that is made from organ meat stuffed inside of a sheep stomach lining.
“I’d love to see a resurgence of more involvement in these activities,” said Heather Richendrfer, festival founder and executive director. “Certainly, you don’t need to be Scottish to do those activities, but it is a way to celebrate your heritage if you are Scottish.”
The dance competition is sanctioned by the Royal Scottish Official Board of Highland Dancing and brings judges from across the U.S. It will have competitors from four years old to adults competing for cash prizes.
The athletic games will include a caber toss, lifting heavy stones and hammer throwing, among other displays of strength.
Gates open at 8 a.m. before the festival officially kicks off at 9 a.m. with all of the competitions. The storytelling will occur in the mid-morning and afternoon, and a massed band performance will take place around lunchtime. The pipe band competition is set for mid-afternoon, and dance events will continue through the day. The event will finish with a massed band display.
The festival, which started in 2018, is celebrating its second year in Blaine. Richendrfer said she chose Blaine to host the event because of its seaside parallels to where the World Highland Game Championships are held in Scotland.
Richendrfer started a Scottish dance studio, the Clan Heather Dancers, in Bellingham over 50 years ago and has traveled the world judging dance competitions, including the world championships.
Tickets cost $25 for adults and $20 for students, seniors and active military members. Children under 5 years old may enter for free, and four-person group bundles are available for $62.
Tickets are available at scottishdancesociety.org/scottish-gathering. A finalized festival schedule will soon be available on the website and Facebook.
“The Scottish people are very proud and their history is important to them,” Richendrfer said. “This is a major cultural event in Whatcom County.”
