Greater Moncton Highland Games and Scottish Festival

[00:00:03] I am Mark the NB Traveler and here we talk about New Brunswick stuff. Today

[00:00:11] we're going to be featuring information about the Highland Games in Moncton, but

[00:00:16] first I just wanted to mention that I returned from a three-week trip both to

[00:00:21] Italy and United States and I'm so happy to be back. A special thank you

[00:00:28] to Denis who provided me with enough cups of espresso and cappuccino that it got

[00:00:36] me all the way through 12 days in Italy. And now let's get started on today's

[00:00:44] episode. Here it comes. Today I have Jenna Morton with me who is the

[00:00:54] executive director of the Greater Moncton Scottish Association and we're

[00:01:00] going to be talking about the Greater Moncton Highland Games and Scottish

[00:01:05] Festival that's coming June 13th to the 17th. Jenna, welcome to New Brunswick

[00:01:12] Traveler. Well thank you so much for having me I'm excited to be here. Tell

[00:01:18] me how long the games have been running and what inspired its

[00:01:23] creation to begin with. I'll do my best to answer that. That's a it's

[00:01:29] actually before my time. The association itself is celebrating 50 years this

[00:01:35] year. The games as an event are celebrating their 18th anniversary this

[00:01:40] year. So I only moved to the area in 2009 and became involved with the

[00:01:47] organizational side in 2019. So from my understanding it had very kind of

[00:01:54] humble beginnings as just kind of a free concert on the waterfront in

[00:01:59] Moncton and that was so well received that the association really felt that

[00:02:04] there needed to be more of a gathering time we'll say it's not so much a

[00:02:10] place as it is an event and a time to really celebrate the Scottish

[00:02:15] heritage of you know families who may have been here for 200 plus years as

[00:02:20] well as people who are moving to the area from Scotland and just anyone who

[00:02:26] has an interest in learning more about the culture. The the Highland Games here

[00:02:30] in Moncton are very much focused on trying to be very inclusive and and

[00:02:35] really kind of teaching people what the culture is about rather than being

[00:02:39] just kind of an insular inward focused event for a particular culture.

[00:02:44] Well can you provide an overview as some of the different events and

[00:02:49] competitions that take place during the games? Of course I love to describe it to

[00:02:54] people as you know it really is a series of competitions happening all at

[00:02:59] the same time. So on the main day of the the festival which is the Saturday

[00:03:04] we have in the morning individual piping and individual drumming

[00:03:10] competitions that are happening. We have our individual Highland dance

[00:03:14] competitions for the less experienced dancers and we have a 5k run that

[00:03:20] happens that is very much a fun run. We will provide times but it's not really

[00:03:25] about getting your personal business to this event and then of course we have

[00:03:30] in some years we will have sword fighting competitions this year it's a

[00:03:36] demonstration rather than a competition and then of course the

[00:03:39] heavy events which is really kind of that iconic image that a lot of

[00:03:43] people have when they think of the Highland games those are you know that

[00:03:47] the big strong men and women who are lifting the capers and hurling the

[00:03:51] sheafs up over these incredible heights that I just I can't even imagine the

[00:03:55] the athleticism that goes into to so many of the events that we have even

[00:04:00] you know certainly the dancing is very athletic but if anyone in there

[00:04:04] has tried to play the bagpipes or walk around with a drum and march

[00:04:08] there's a lot of athleticism to that as well.

[00:04:11] So how does the game celebrate and promote Scottish heritage and culture

[00:04:18] in the local community I know you've already mentioned a little bit about

[00:04:22] how it highlights the heritage but how does that extend out into the

[00:04:27] community in certain ways?

[00:04:28] One of the things that we do with the festival is free

[00:04:33] concerts in the evenings leading up so you know back to those kind of

[00:04:36] original roots of this free concert on the waterfront we continue that

[00:04:41] tradition so on Tuesday night of festival week we have a free concert in

[00:04:46] Moncton and the idea there is really just to bring in some great talent

[00:04:52] and showcase what they can do in a way that's very accessible to people

[00:04:56] who might never think of the Highland games or Scottish culture something

[00:05:00] that interested them and then we do the same thing on Wednesday night in

[00:05:04] Riverview on their waterfront and have different set of musicians and

[00:05:08] dancers do a free concert and these concerts usually last an hour to an

[00:05:12] hour and a half and we reach a lot of people who are you know just out for

[00:05:17] an evening walk it's June it's lovely weather people are out and about

[00:05:21] and they stop and they ask questions about why there's music what type of

[00:05:26] music what's happening and we can talk a bit more about you know the

[00:05:30] festival that's coming up and the things that happen year-round through

[00:05:33] the association you mentioned about things that happen year-round with the

[00:05:38] association maybe you could expand on that just a little bit sure as with you

[00:05:43] know most Scottish associations we we generally do something for St.

[00:05:48] Andrew's Day which is in November that one is usually something that's a

[00:05:52] bit more light and social and open to both the members and non-members at

[00:05:59] Christmas time we have a Highland dance competition which is one of the the kind

[00:06:03] of mainstay events on the calendar for Highland dancers throughout the

[00:06:08] Maritimes and is always a really nice celebration in January it's Robert

[00:06:12] Burns so of course we have a Robert Burns dinner and an event for that and

[00:06:17] then through the through the winter we're a little bit quieter as most

[00:06:21] things on the East Coast of Canada are we tend to try to have you know

[00:06:25] at least one kind of social gathering or outing at that time and then we do

[00:06:31] little outreach things as well you know the Heritage Fair that the the

[00:06:35] school district puts on we've been involved with that this year to to

[00:06:39] really have a chance to introduce some young students to music and dance

[00:06:45] and history and different parts of the culture that hopefully will

[00:06:49] encourage them to come out and and you know experience the festival and

[00:06:53] start to try to think a little bit more about the different backgrounds and

[00:06:57] things that that have you know come together to make this place what it is

[00:07:03] festivals always have some kind of economic benefit to a community and I'm

[00:07:11] sure that your communities are willing to put some money into sponsorships

[00:07:16] in the festival what kind of economic benefit do you see that the

[00:07:22] festival has for the greater Moncton area we actually have a very solid

[00:07:28] number for that thanks to to work we did over the last couple of years in

[00:07:32] 2022 we hosted an international event so we had heavy athletes from across

[00:07:38] the world come for the Scottish Masters and that was a huge event

[00:07:43] multi-day massive impact and it really helped us understand better

[00:07:49] what we should be tracking in terms of who's coming and what's happening so in

[00:07:54] the following year 2023 based on advice from the province as well we asked

[00:08:00] people for their postal codes as they came through the gate and so it was

[00:08:04] very easy to show that even in a year when we didn't have an

[00:08:07] international event we had international guests we had guests from

[00:08:11] across Canada and we were able to show that we have an economic a

[00:08:16] direct economic impact of about six hundred thousand dollars to the local

[00:08:22] economy when we host this event you know it's a it's a big event we we

[00:08:27] hire you know people who put up tents we hire porta potties we hire

[00:08:31] security we hire entertainers we bring in you know horse and wagon rides

[00:08:37] and bouncy castles we have a huge agricultural piece to our festival

[00:08:42] which is not something people always think to expect when they're coming

[00:08:46] they think about the music and the heavy events but we have sheep dogs and

[00:08:50] sheep and we do you know what we call sheep to shawl so you can see the

[00:08:54] sheep see it being sheared see someone weaving you know and really teach

[00:09:00] people that whole process of how these things work and so we're very

[00:09:03] proud of what we create and what we create for the broader community I'm

[00:09:09] always amazed at the herding ability of those sheep dogs oh they are something

[00:09:16] incredible to watch and they are always a huge draw when they take the

[00:09:19] field so an event of this size has a lot of big challenges in organizing

[00:09:27] it I'm sure and also in getting volunteers so just give me a couple

[00:09:34] three things that as executive director you have to deal with in the

[00:09:39] challenges of organization and volunteers I would say one of our biggest

[00:09:46] challenges with an event like this is people look at and they're like oh it

[00:09:51] happens every year it looks fantastic oh they must have everything

[00:09:55] they need to pull this off and of course not just like every other

[00:09:59] event that's out there you know we have a framework in place but there's

[00:10:03] always room for more people to step up and help out if something like this we

[00:10:07] generally on our volunteer matrix are looking to have anywhere from 60 to 80

[00:10:13] people on site to help us out with this and I can tell you that the

[00:10:17] membership of the association is about that same number and so we really do

[00:10:22] rely on the broader community to come out and and to step up and you know

[00:10:28] some of our corporate partners are able to do that it's also really

[00:10:32] tricky for us where we fall in mid-june we run up against a lot of kind of end of

[00:10:38] the school year events and things so it's hard sometimes to get some of the

[00:10:43] people who would love to support us to be able to give time at that event

[00:10:46] so that's definitely one of the challenges that we face in terms of the

[00:10:50] timing of things but our times are set based on those competition

[00:10:54] schedules right we had to find a weekend that didn't already have

[00:10:59] piping competitions, highland dance competitions, heavy event competition so

[00:11:03] we're not changing our date but definitely there's always opportunity

[00:11:09] for more people to come and volunteer and we've been working to try to to

[00:11:13] reach out to some different groups where we're having some conversations

[00:11:16] with the you know some of the high schools around to see if there is

[00:11:19] something we can do with some of their younger students who aren't in

[00:11:23] you know graduation mode in June and certainly reaching out again to like I

[00:11:28] said our corporate partners have been very good to you know they want their

[00:11:33] employees to be able to get out and get involved in the community and

[00:11:36] that's been a big help.

[00:11:38] Corporate partners are always a very important part of any big event like

[00:11:43] this and I'm sure that year after year you have some that stay with you the whole time.

[00:11:50] We do we've been very fortunate the last several years to have a

[00:11:56] couple big corporate sponsors who have their you know they're giving programs

[00:12:02] in place that we're able to apply through so Atlantic Lottery and Midland

[00:12:06] have been really great to us. We also have a very very nice printed program

[00:12:12] that we do up for our event it's a eight and a half by eleven glossy

[00:12:16] magazine style and so you know EMR services and Kelly's Bake Shop and

[00:12:21] Lounsbury's group a lot of people have been very very good to us to take the

[00:12:26] time to take out ads and and to show up that way for us and and we're lucky

[00:12:30] as well within our organization our association has a few a few members

[00:12:36] who own local businesses and so we get a lot a lot of in-kind support from

[00:12:42] some local companies that really does make a huge difference in making this possible.

[00:12:46] Now individuals that are actually participating in the competition and

[00:12:51] everything how much ahead of time do they have to apply to get into say

[00:12:57] next year's festival? It depends on which competition it is so the piping

[00:13:04] and drumming competitions we usually open registration for those and for

[00:13:07] Highland Dance usually in about April for the June event they are limited to

[00:13:13] about 125 entries possible for the Highland Dance and about 10 pipe bands

[00:13:21] in terms of what we can take for that competition and that's usually that

[00:13:27] usually covers who we have in the Maritimes who is looking to do things

[00:13:31] if we were to want to raise those numbers it would raise the price a

[00:13:36] whole lot because we have to bring in additional judges and the way those

[00:13:40] competitions work you can't have your local folks who are qualified to judge

[00:13:45] judging the people that they you know are in a band with or go to their dance

[00:13:50] school so you know when we have these competitions we have to fly in judges

[00:13:54] from other parts of the country we have to put them up in hotels there

[00:13:57] there's a huge cost to that so right now we're at that for piping

[00:14:02] drumming dance we usually open in April we can take a hundred or so for

[00:14:08] those for the heavy events those go through the Canadian Scottish Athletic

[00:14:13] Federation so our athletic director Brian McLean is really kind of the one who

[00:14:18] takes care of that part of coordinating with CSAF about who's going to compete

[00:14:23] in that competition this year for 2024 we're hosting for the very first

[00:14:29] time ever in the country a juniors competition specifically for women as

[00:14:35] well as juniors competition for men so these are athletes who are ages like 13

[00:14:39] to 19 that are right now getting their invitations and they're offered to come

[00:14:44] and compete for a national title for heavy events for those people who are

[00:14:49] just like I always wanted to try it how do I get in we do host a free

[00:14:54] clinic on the Friday night so anyone who's wanted to try heavy events and

[00:14:59] wants to figure out how to do it and they're not part of that whole

[00:15:02] system yet on Friday night we do have an event where they can come and try

[00:15:06] things out and sometimes it is structured as a competition just kind of

[00:15:11] at an amateur open level that's not part of the official competition but it

[00:15:16] could be your gateway into that world you mentioned about price so as we're

[00:15:23] finishing up the interview how much does it cost for a family to come

[00:15:28] and be involved in the festival well if you are one of those competitions there

[00:15:36] is an entry fee for the competitions based on what you're doing if you're

[00:15:39] just coming to the gate it's ten dollars for adults children are free

[00:15:44] and it's just a it's a flat ten dollars across the board this year it's

[00:15:49] it's always a tricky thing you want to just let everyone in but there's a

[00:15:54] huge price tag to putting something like this on you know our event easily is

[00:15:59] anywhere between a hundred and forty to two hundred thousand dollars to put on

[00:16:04] so we would like to just let everyone in right now it's it's ten dollars

[00:16:10] per person and we feel like for your ten dollars you can come at eight

[00:16:14] o'clock in the morning and stay till nine o'clock at night and once you're

[00:16:18] on site everything's included you can watch all these competitions you can

[00:16:23] watch the entertainment you can take the horse rides you can go on the bouncy

[00:16:27] castles all of those things we have archery and fly casting everything is

[00:16:33] included once you're on the site other than your meals and anything you

[00:16:37] might buy from our vendors that are there and I'm sure they'll be happy

[00:16:41] to sell anything that I wanted to buy oh yes we have fantastic vendors who

[00:16:46] come back year after year if you're looking for tartan Gaelic books you

[00:16:52] know gifts for your dog everything is there well I will have information on the

[00:16:57] show notes with regard to how my listeners can get more information from

[00:17:02] your website and I appreciate the time that you were able to spend with me

[00:17:07] today well I really appreciate your interest in that I hope we see you

[00:17:11] at the games this year mark oh you just might thank you and have a good

[00:17:16] day thank you for listening to the total episode by doing so it helps my

[00:17:27] reading on Spotify or wherever you might happen to listen to the podcast

[00:17:33] next week we're going to have Andrew McLean the backyard history guy who's

[00:17:38] going to be talking about rum running in New Brunswick have a great day I

[00:17:45] look forward to having you back with me again next week