‘It’s very meaningful:’ Thousands attend 161st Highland Games in Antigonish N.S.

Thousands attended the 161st Highland Games event in Antigonish, N.S., over the weekend.

Thousands attended the 161st Highland Games event in Antigonish, N.S. this weekend.

“It’s been running since 1861. We are the longest continuously running Highland Games in Canada,” says operating manager, Dan Cochrane.

The week-long event has been a staple in the Antigonish community and celebrates Scottish culture through various activities including piping and drumming, fiddle music, and the ancient Scottish heavy events.

“Historically, the Scots were kind of driven from their homeland, the Highlanders were driven from their homeland, and a lot of them settled in our shores in the early 1800s. So, it was really important to them to preserve this culture. That’s a tradition that we try to uphold today.”

Cochrane says he’s pleased to see a range of cultures attend this year’s event.

“While it was traditionally Scottish, it has become so much more diverse and we’re seeing so many people of different cultures take part, from the Highland dance stage to the heavy events. It’s fantastic to see such diversity in the crowd. I think that’s a big factor. It’s becoming more of a community event than strictly a cultural event,” he says.

Ian Boyd, committee member and past president of the Antigonish Highland Society, says this year’s event is a homecoming for residents of Antigonish.

“Anybody of Scottish descent from this province, they love to come back and go piping and drumming, and Highland dancing and the Scottish heavy events. It’s just a wonderful array of everything Scottish and its cultures,” he says.

Boyd says Pipping and drumming are always a crowd favourite.

“It’s a music of the culture. When people hear a bagpipe or a pipe band, it brings back various memories,” he says. “It was a memory that’s associated with happy times but also associated with funerals and stuff such as that where there’s laments played when a person is being laid to rest. So, it’s very meaningful.”

Between three and four thousand people were in attendance for Saturday’s festivities.

Cochrane says they hope to finish out strong on Sunday.

“Its going to be lots of tug of war on the field, and we’ll have our closing ceilidh in the tent. It’s a lot of fun,” he says.

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