Estes Park’s annual September Scottish-Irish Highland
Festival has been “On My List” for quite a long time . This year I finally decided
to take the plunge and attend. It always starts on a Thursday night with an
opening Tattoo and goes on through Sunday. I planned my visit to take in the
Tattoo on Thursday night and a full day of activities on Friday before things
get really crowded and chaotic on the weekend.

Until this year’s festival, I thought a tattoo was body art,
inking your skin with some design that will be on display to the world for the
rest of your life. I didn’t know that a Tattoo is also a traditional Scottish military
parade with bagpipers. The Highland Festival Tattoo started as the sun was
setting at a local school sports field. With the twilight over the mountains in
the background and a real band of bagpipers from Scotland marching in, the
surroundings could make you briefly feel like you were in Scottish Highlands.
It was a good show for a couple hours and included American military bands as
well as traditional bagpipers.

I car camped in a lot near the town’s golf course and woke
up to find a heard of elk grazing around my Jeep . It was one of those “only in
Colorado!” type experiences.

Although it was originally the Scottish Highland Festival,
Irish has been added to the official names to include Irish dancing and bands,
but in reality I think more appropriate to call it a pan-Celtic festival with a
smattering of Welsh and Breton representation as well.

My favorite is the Highland Games, a series of strength
competitions with many of the same events you might see on a “World’s Strongest
Man” competition on ESPN. Those include the very Scottish Cabre Toss which
involves lifting and tossing what looks like a telephone pole. Another is a
modified overhead log lift, no a metal contraption with interior hand holds for
an easier grip. Then there’s the Farmer’s Walk with heavy milk urns carried for
a distance, and round stone lifts. These are all undertaken by some big beefy
lads – no skinny boys here! I didn’t see any girls either. Women are involved
in bodybuilding, of course, but I’ve never heard of a World’s Strongest Woman
competition or seen women participate in Highland Games events .

There were lots of booths in tents with vendors selling
everything Scottish and Celtic themed. Hmmm, would I look good in a kilt? Maybe
if I bought myself a leather one – yes, they had those too. There was a lot of
Irish and Scottish dancing on various performance stages, and bands from
Scotland and Ireland, singers of ballads and cutting-edge rockers. A band of bagpipers
from Scotland, an U.S. Air Force marching band, and an Air Force honor guard
put on a good show.

And then it was time for lunch, what else but Haggis. It was
my first time and will likely be my last. My understanding of authentic Haggis
is that it’s a mix of ground mixed sheep’s innards, among which lights (lungs)
are very prominent, and oatmeal stuffed into a sheep’s stomach and steamed.
Anyway, what I ate tasted a lot like chopped liver. Never again!

I saved the best for last - the jousting matches. I thought
jousting was just something they did for cheesy shows at Medieval Times and at
Renaissance Fares, but it’s apparently a real sport with real prize money .
Anyway, big dudes dressed in full body armor are helped onto their horses, huge
muscular Percherons rather than sleek thoroughbreds, and they charge at each
other from opposite ends of the field with long jousting poles. Sometimes they
get knocked off their horses. I didn’t quite understand just how the scoring
system works, because knocking your opponent off his horse doesn’t necessarily
seem to be the way to score points. Most of the competitors seemed to be from
Canada, so maybe jousting is a bigger sport there. I don’t think jousting is
something particularly Scottish or Celtic, but it’s something completely different
and lots of fun. Jousting is cool! I vote to add it as an official Olympic
sport.