RADFORD – The Radford Highlanders Festival is this Saturday, Oct. 12 on Radford University’s Moffett Quad, just of Tyler Avenue. The celebration of Scots-Irish heritage is a collaboration between Radford University and the City of Radford and has free admission.
This year’s music on the main stage includes The Fighting Jamesons from Virginia Beach, and Geoff White, who infuses Celtic, old-time, and even some Cajun influences into his playing for a unique brand of fiddling. The Fighting Jamesons will play three shows on the main stage at 11 a.m., 1:45 p.m. and 3:45 p.m. White takes the festival main stage two times at 12:30 p.m. and 2:45 p.m.
At the Clocks Plaza, Celtic folk duo, Kinnfolk, from Roanoke, will play at 12:30 p.m. and 2:45 p.m. PanJammers, an award-winning steel drum orchestra based in Blacksburg, will play at 11 a.m. Highland dancer Claire Pollitt will perform at 10:45 a.m. and 2:20 p.m. Hollace Oakes and Friends will play at 1:30 p.m.
Throughout the day, there will be sheepherding demonstrations, children’s games and pipe and drum bands. Food vendors will offer authentic Scottish fare and classic festival food including pizzas, burgers and funnel cakes. There will also be several craft vendors.
A massed band performance and Scottish clans march is scheduled for noon. Clans, a concept dating back to the 12th century, were extended networks of families loyal to a particular chief. The word clan is derived from the Gaelic ‘clann,’ meaning children.
The popular heavyweight games will feature the traditional events and competitions associated with rural and military life, including weights for distance and height; the stones, similar to modern-day shotput; the sheaf toss; and the crowd-pleasing caber toss.
The Highlanders Festival began in the mid-1990s with about 3,000 people attending. Since then, the festival has more than tripled in size and now attracts an estimated gathering of 10,000 people each October.
To learn more about the Radford Highlanders Festival, visit https://www.radford.edu/content/festival/home.html.You may also follow the Highlanders Festival on Facebook.
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