Portland Highland Games

Yesterday was the 57th annual Scottish Highland Games here in beautiful, sunny Portland, Oregon.

My own connections with the Games don't go quite that far back. My family moved here in 1972, when I was a sophomore in high school. I can't say I went to every PHG until I moved to S Florida in 2001, but I think I went to about 75% of them over the years.

I usually go alone, but until my Dad became very ill he went with me a couple of times. Yesterday I wore his Irish-style walking cap, which Mom gave me after his death.

I've been to highland games here in Portland, of course, but also the ones in S Florida, Central Oregon, and the Seattle area and Portland's is always the best. Part of the reason is the physical setup. At the other three games I've been to, they all take place in a flat field, with the bagpipe competitions being only one of the events going on, and taking place in a corner of the field. Here in Portland the games take place out at Mt Hood Community College, with the bagpipe band competitions going on down on the 50 yard line on the track at the base of the grandstands--and the stands are always packed for them, so several hundred people are there. And after the competitions they have the advanced level caber toss, and then the massed bands (after they can get them all out of the two beer tents).

Of course it helps that at the Games, the seats in the grandstand are shaded from noon on....

There was lots of other stuff going on--fiddling competitions, vendors of all kinds, the Highland athletic events, a specialist in Scottish genealogy, etc. There were also other entertainers, whom I was not able to hear, since I don't have a clone with a group mind or the ability to bilocate.

The entertainers this year were:
Beltaine;
Rebecca Lomnicky and David Brewer , a Scottish fiddle & bagpipes duo; and,
and Cathy Speer, a local singer/songwriter.

Highland games here in Oregon and Washington benefit from having I-5, the major West Coast N-S route, running through the Western parts of the states. Portland is 3 hours South of Seattle, and 6 hours South of Vancouver, BC, so we always get bands from the whole area and sometimes from further afield. Two of the bands had placed in the top 10 at the world competitions in the last couple of years.

This year's bands in the competitions were as follows:

In Grade 4 were the:
NW Junior Pipe Band from the Seattle area;
Portland Metro Youth PB (who challenged up a grade as well);
Portland Police Highland Guard PB;
White Spot PB, from up near Vancouver BC.

Grade 3 had:
Bushmills Irish Pipers PB, up from San Francisco;
Greighlan Crossing PB, also from the Vancouver BC area;
Portland Metro PB, which also challenged up to Grade 2;
and the Keith Highlanders PB, down from the Seattle area.

In Grade 2 were:
New Westminster Police PB, from the Vancouver BC area, who under their previous name (Maple Ridge) are long-time favorites here in Portland; and,
the Chilliwack & District PB, also from BC.

Our only Grade 1 pipe band was another long-time favorite here in Portland, the Triumph Street band also down from the Vancouver BC area. This band is huge. I've been to other games where the massed bands were smaller than Triumph Street alone.....

All the bands yesterday were excellent, and I heard some great music. I really wish I knew which pieces each band played because some of them had some jazzy elements, and several of them really rocked.

Speaking of the massed bands, yesterday's was very impressive. It took up the entire width of the football field, and was about 30 yards long.

All in all, a great show.