Huntsville used to have an annual Scottish festival. And then it stopped. Now we have a new one! I missed the first Rocket City Highland Games & Scottish Festival in October 2023 because I was attending an immediate family member’s destination wedding at an all-inclusive resort in Mexico (they didn’t have to twist my arm too hard). We first attended the festival this year on October 5, 2024. I don’t know anyone that went the first year and information was….sparse for this year. Let’s do a compliment sandwich!
The entry fee was cheap, though surprisingly difficult for some people to understand. 1 person in 1 car was $5. 2 or more people in 1 car was $10. And what we got was absolutely worth that! We got to see some demos, hear music, watch some games, and shop with some neat vendors. But…
There was a critical website failure (my guess: the person managing the website quit, taking the website down with her). They did create a new website with a new URL, but it was sparse. The vast majority of information was being posted piece-meal on the Facebook page that was managing the Facebook event in the week leading up. This was content like the list of food trucks, vendors, parking & cost information, which gate to use, and a schedule. This often had 2 different start times listed, had multiple “TBD” entries, and it was mostly a list of what was going on at the main stage. Nothing about which games when, or hours for anything else. What I found telling were statements in these posts; for example the post that had the Vendor list had something to the effect of “we’ll add more as we get the complete list”. It’s less than a week before the festival and no one wrote down all the vendors in one place? Questions about the schedule were answered about them being only a small group of 4 volunteers and they were still finalizing it (the day before?). There was SO little information, that people were asking if the event was even happening. Interestingly, when I went to grab a screenshot, their page has been deleted. So all of that information is gone.
As the above will suggest, to a casual attendee, it was not clear what to expect. Parking WAS well coordinated. After we arrived about 9:15, there were no signs or maps indicating what the,re was, where it was, and still no schedule. We saw multiple games going on at once, and a large part of the game field not in use. I was hoping that was for tossing cabers, but I didn’t see anything lying around that looked like big trees. I wanted to know if that would be happening and when (it was hot and very little shade, so we didn’t want to wait if it wouldn’t happen). The picnic pavilion had a banner on it that read Information. At about 10:45, I went and found no information. Nearby was a tent selling official merchandise, so THAT must be the information booth! I asked about cabers, and they suggested I find the information booth. They didn’t know where that was, but they knew there WOULD be caber-tossing, but no idea when. They were very nice and phoned someone to ask for a schedule. That person said he would bring over a schedule “sometime after the parade of tartans”. That was going to start in about 10 minutes. We did watch it, but decided to leave about 11:30 and didn’t want to walk back across the fair grounds to maybe see a schedule. It was hot and there was no cool-down area, so we left without seeing it. Had we known approximately when it would be, we’d have arrived to the festival around then.
Despite my complaining above, what DID show up there was great! We knew the game participants, musicians, clan tents, vendors, and food trucks would know what to do – and they did! There were multiple food truck options (lemonade, coffee, Korean, barbeque, loaded fries/nachos, and mexican), multiple types of vendors (jewelry, metal-working, leather-working, photography, paper artwork, soaps, candied apples, a bakery, teas, and KILTS of course), and you could hear the musicians practicing through the entire grounds. The ambiance was really lovely. We had some nice lemonade, OK BBQ, and I bought the coolest spooky halloween wreath from the metal-workers and a few Christmas gifts.
My one other big gripe is that despite being billed as “AND Highland Games”, it was not really laid out for you to watch them. The games field is a large square. 2 out of 4 sides are trees, so you can’t go to those sides. The other 2 sides are police caution tape, so those are the spectator sides. But four steps behind the edge are the clan tents. So you have basically only 1 row deep of people that can watch on 2 of the 4 sides? We brought a blanket to sit and watch and even if we were the FIRST ones there, there was no space to put it.
A thing that was convenient about this smaller event is that you were never too far from your vehicle. If you bought something and wanted to run it back to the car, or if you had kids or medical needs, you could easily pop back.
I mentioned a couple of times above, but the heat was oppressive. Despite being in October, the temperature in Huntsville can be unpredictable. Last week was Fall in the lower 70s, this week was Summer in the upper 80s. If you’re dressed in your kilt and hose, it can get roasty-toasty and there was very little shade or places to sit.
Obviously the entrance fee was low, so I absolutely did get my money’s worth several times over. There’s room for improvement, but honestly, what second year event can’t say that? I hope whatever organizational catastrophe gets fixed and they’ll continue on next year! I would love to know when to arrive to see what I want to see (and have somewhere to see it!), have more trash cans, a cool-down area, and maybe even some food that’s actually themed (scotch eggs, turkey legs, etc). Maybe in a few more years we can get some highland coos and a sheep-herding demo! Do your best, I’m rooting for you! I want a Rocket City Scottish Festival & Highland Games 2025!
Interested in visiting the real Scotland or traveling to other games? Email me today at Leslie@StoutMagicalVacations.com and let me help! If your trip is booked through me, my services are 100% free to you.