It happens every year, but it features some of the most unusual activities ever to take place at Bridgeport City Park.

 

On Saturday, May 7, the grounds will feature everything from a beer keg toss to hundreds of bagpipers marching in unison.

 

The event is the Annual Scottish Heritage Festival & Celtic Gathering. Sponsored by the North Central West Virginia Scottish Heritage Society and now its 15^th year, the festival draws spectators, competitors, and other participants from around the nation and world. Among highlights are the pipe bands, heavy athletics, living history, Scottish wares and country dancing, sheep herding, spinning, weaving, genealogy and much more.

 

The festival kicks off at 8:30 a.m. with amateur heavy athletic competition and concludes at 5 p.m. with the day's final massed band performance and awards presentation. 

 

Regulars, including Scottish clans dating back hundreds of years and each with a chief, official tartan and coat of arms, look forward to the event every year. But first-time attendees won’t leave disappointed, Festival Chair Kevin Anderson always says.

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“For the first time, they need to come see the ‘pageantry’ – the opening ceremonies and bagpipe bands playing at the same time, the parade of clans, Scottish breed dogs and children’s games. Take a look and take a listen. We try to have something for everybody – young to old.”

 

Certainly among the most popular are the heavy athletic games. Including sheaf toss, hammer throw and the always popular caber toss – featuring the throwing of a large wooden, cobb-like pole called a caber - the events require great strength and are interesting to witness, Anderson said.

 

Highland Dancers and demonstrations such as herding, spinning and weaving are also popular attractions. With genealogy in the pop culture forefront, tracing of the Scots-Irish heritage is always popular, as well.

 

For the second year, the festival will also feature a longbow demonstrator, who will share history of the longbow which was used during the 12^th to 16^th centuries.

 

Children attending the festival will receive an education on the Scotch-Irish heritage. A passport will be given to each upon his or her arrival and as they travel tent to tent, each clan will place a stamp on that passport, which can ultimately be redeemed for a prize.  

 

There is an admission cost, but once inside, attendees have full reign of a plethora of exhibits, attractions and entertainment, with this year’s entertainers including Jil Chambless & Scooter Muse, IONA and the American Rogues. Those entertainers will also be featured at a 7:30 p.m. concert at Bridgeport High School auditorium.

 

It was a Kirkin’ of Tartans service at First Presbyterian Church in Clarksburg that started the festival a decade and a half ago. Members of the North Central West Virginia Scottish Heritage Society decided it was their responsibility to educate people about their Celtic and Scottish roots. So the festival was launched.

 

The festival also features a May 6 Celidh at Via Veneto. The Scottish-style party will be plentiful with food, fun and entertainment. The weekend will wind up with a May 8 morning service at First Presbyterian Church in Clarksburg and a procession through the streets of Clarksburg

 

For more information, visit the NCWV Scottish Heritage Society Web site HERE. See a full schedule of events HERE.

  

Editor's Note: Above photos taken by Ben Queen of Ben Queen Photography during the 2015 Scottish Heritage Festival and Celtic Gathering. See more of his images HERE.