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The 54th annual Grandfather Mountain Highland Games will be Thursday through next Sunday at the famed peak in Avery County. Grandfather Mountain, a year-round attraction owned by the Morton family, is on U.S. 221, two miles north of Linville, near the Blue Ridge Parkway's Milepost 305. The games are a nonprofit entity separate from Grandfather Mountain, which lets the Highland Games use the site free of charge.
The basics
What's the point? “To foster and restore interest in traditional dancing, piping, athletic achievement and Gaelic culture, and to create and establish scholarship funds to assist students from Avery County High School to study at American colleges and universities,” according to the Games' Web site.
Estimated attendance: 30,000 over four-day run.
Lay of the land: The games will be held on MacRae Meadows; some evening events will be held at satellite sites in Banner Elk (Lees-McRae College) and Boone (Appalachian State).
Distance from Charlotte: About 112 miles. (See logistics info below.)
Event hours: 4:30-about 9:30 p.m. Thursday; 9 a.m.-3 p.m. and 6:30 p.m.-midnight Friday; 7:30 a.m.-5 p.m. and 7 p.m.-around midnight Saturday; 9 a.m.-4 p.m. (end of closing ceremony) next Sunday.
Elsewhere on the mountain: Customary Grandfather Mountain sights – such as the Swinging Bridge and nature museum – will be open, with separate admission ($15; $7 for ages 4-12; 3 and younger, free).
Number of clans participating: 92, one of the largest in North America in terms of number of families participating.
Number of clan tents on the grounds for this event: 167. Some clans have more than one tent. The tents have information about clans and septs (sub-clan, or family that was under a clan's protection in traditional Gaelic society).
Clan with the biggest turnout: The MacDonalds (also called Clan Donald) and their septs.
Background: The games were founded in 1956 by Agnes MacRae Morton and Donald MacDonald, a reporter with the Charlotte News.
Costs and events
Admission: Thursday (with torchlight opening ceremony plus entertainment): $15; $5 for ages 5-12; 4 and younger, free.
Friday (exhibition games, entertainment): $20; $5 for ages 5-12; 4 and younger, free. Celtic Jam (has traditional Scottish music and Scottish rock) only: $15; $5 for ages 5-12. The event is 7-11 p.m. Ceildh concert is 8 p.m. at Lees-McRae College Auditorium, Banner Elk (tickets sold at the door only); $10; $5 for ages 5-12; 4 and younger, free.
Saturday (athletics, music, various events and competitions): $30; $5 for ages 5-12; 4 and younger, free. Piping concert at 7 p.m. at Broyhill Inn and Conference Center, Boone (tickets sold at the door only); $10, 4 and younger, free. 8:30 p.m. concert at Broyhill by Alex Beaton & Friends (Beaton is a notable entertainer in his native Scotland; tickets sold at the door only): $10; 4 and younger, free. Evening Scottish rock concert at MacRae Meadows: $15; $5 for ages 5-12 and younger; 4 and younger, free. Ceildh concert is 8 p.m. at Lees-McRae College Auditorium, Banner Elk (tickets sold at the door only): $10; $5 for 12 and younger. Scottish Country Dance Gala, 8 p.m.-midnight, Williams Gymnasium at Lees-McRae College, Banner Elk. $25 to dance, $10 to watch.
Next Sunday (exhibition games, senior sports competition, clan and children competition; Parade of Tartans): $15; $5 for ages 5-12.
Entertainment
Featured bagpipe bands: Grandfather Mountain Highlanders, City of Charleston Police Pipes and Drums, Blue Ridge Brass & Pipes, Loch Norman Pipe Band, Montreat Scottish Pipes & Drums, N.C. State University Pipes & Drums.
Featured music performers: Albannach (pipe/drum group), Barleyjuice (Celtic rock), Clandestine (traditional and modern Celtic music), Coyote Run (Gaelic folk-esque rock), Teribus (Celtic and tribal music), Scythian (Irish-Celtic-gypsy influences).
More music: Six tents set up in Celtic groves on the meadow Friday-Sunday; musicranges from traditional Scottish to Appalachian.
Athletics: Begin at 7 p.m. Thursday with The Bear – a 5-mile uphill run – and end Sunday with heavy athletics events, which include throwing heavy objects (16-pound stone, 22-pound hammer, a 28- and 56-pound weight toss, turning the caber, which is a log). Friday's Grizzly Bike Ride throughout Avery County, including a dirt road up the back side of Beech Mountain. The annual running of the Grandfather Mountain Marathon is Saturday. There's also a clan vs. clan tug-of-war on the final day. Other sports events include footraces and wrestling.
Other stuff: Demonstrations by border collies, of sheep herding, etc.
