A Highlands weekend in Blairsville

BLAIRSVILLE - The wet Scottish style weather Saturday in Blairsville did not stop or even slow down the 5th Annual Scottish Festival at Meeks Park.

You did not have to go far to hear the bagpipes. Evan Kohler-Camp is with the Atholl Highlanders from Stone Mountain and the sound of his pipes and those of the other pipers set the mood for the big weekend event that continued through Sunday.

"You have two reactions, either it attracts them or there are a few who will run away," Kohler-Camp said. "This is definitely an outdoor, old shepherd's instrument, not really a musical instrument, but it became modified over the years to become the Highland Bag Pipe."

Scots clansmen and women did not mind the rain, and apparently neither did the hundreds of visitors too much, in what has become one of the two big annual outdoor events in Union County.

"It's in addition to the Sorghum Festival that takes place in October," said Cindy Williams, President of the Blairsville/Union County Chamber of Commerce. "Every year it is growing and we're receiving tremendous recognition; we're thrilled with what it has become."

Event Chairman Jim McAfee originated the festival six and a half years ago, not only as a tourist draw, but also to celebrate and highlight the Northeast Georgia town's strong Scots heritage.

"It was for the Chamber of Commerce to bring people to the mountains and we've got a lot of Scottish folks up here," McAfee said. "We thought this might be something that would bring the folks in and it has."

McAfee said it brought around 8,000 people to the Blairsville area last year.

"On this side of the pond, you guys do it so much better than we do," said Romilly Squire from Edinburgh, Scotland.

"We have a very, very long history and we know where we come from. Over here, this is your heritage, you're exploring, you're celebrating and getting on with it in a way that we don't do back home in Scotland."

Squire is secretary of the Standing Council of Scottish Chiefs and said he helps Americans of Scottish descent to connect with their ancestry.

"Every Scottish family is headed by a chief of the clan and it's a great ambition by many Americans to find out where their chief is, meet the chief and visit the ancestral homeland," Squire said. "I attend these games to answer questions and educate people in terms of exactly where they come from and what they belong to."

The clan tents lined the field in which traditional Scottish games were played and where the audience watched the ancient sport of falconry displayed.

"It's about family pride and your roots," Joel Gunn of the Clan Gunn said as he watched the games in progress.

Gunn, clad in the traditional Gunn light and dark green tartan colors striped in red, said people want to get in touch with their past.

"The Scotch community is really alive and well in America and flourishing," Gunn said. "I think we're seeing an upward surge in people coming to the games and getting interested."

http://accesswdun.com/article/2008/6/210808