Tucson’s Celtic Festival is going big with its annual Scottish Highland Games competition this year.
The festival, taking place Friday, Nov. 1-Sunday, Nov. 3, at Rillito Park Racetrack, has been tapped to host the Masters World Championship Highland Games, bringing athletes from around the world to compete in the Old Pueblo.
More than 150 athletes from as far away as Australia and Japan will be on-site to participate in nine traditional Highland games that include stone throwing, weight throwing and caber (large tapered log) tossing, on three competition fields, running simultaneously throughout the weekend.
Last year, the Masters was held in Stuttgart, Germany. The year before, it was held in Iceland.
Erin Haugen, manager of the Celtic Festival, said the local Scottish Highland Games group, the Tucson Celtic Hammerheads, petitioned to have the Masters, which is meant for competitors 40-years-and-older, to come here this year.
The Hammerheads help make up a portion of the 80-100 athletes who compete each year in the Tucson Celtic Festival’s regular Highland games. They worked with the Tucson Celtic Festival Association and the Kilted Athletes of America to make the Masters happen in Tucson.
“Other countries were in the running, but we lucked out,” Haugen said. “We have a big competition field that worked in our favor.”
Watching the Masters World Championship is included in the price of admission to the Celtic festival, an event that attempts to encompass a wide swath of Celtic culture, from the music to the cuisine to clothing.
Now in its 33rd year, the fest has a lot of the regular features that past visitors have grown to love.
There will be bagpipe and drum ensembles and several dance troupes performing, including Celtic Steps Irish Dance and the Maguire Academy of Irish Dance.
A merchants’ village will offer a range of Celtic-themed products, from art and jewelry to kilts and tchotchkes.
You can learn about pirate culture, the history of the West Highland white terrier, and fashion in Scotland and Ireland from the 16th to 18th centuries during regularly scheduled workshops.
On Friday night, the festival weekend will kick off with a concert featuring national touring acts the Young Dubliners and the Tossers, a Celtic-rock outfit from Chicago.
“This will be the Tossers first time playing the Celtic Festival and the festival’s first time putting a concert of this scale on,” Haugen said. “We are very excited.”
Then there is the cuisine. The Tucson Celtic Festival will offer several delicacies with origins from across the pond, including fish and chips, bangers and mash, meat pastries, haggis, corned beef tacos and Welsh cakes, served as part of a Celtic tea experience.
“The Welsh cakes are unique,” Haugen said. “They usually sell out. People need to get there for them first thing in the morning.”
Haugen said half the challenge of the Celtic Festival is spreading the word about the event.
Haugen said that in recent years the board has stopped charging for parking and made other tactical moves to attract more visitors.
“We are trying to make it easier to come out and have a good time,” she said.
