LIVERPOOL, N.Y. (NCC News) — The countdown is ON for the 79th CNY Scottish Games & Celtic Festival. This Saturday, Aug. 13, the festival will be open from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. and will be located at Long Branch Park, Liverpool.
What is different from previous years is the tartan, which is chosen annually by the Scottish Games. This tartan, developed by Great Scot Fine Tailoring, was called “Forever Ukraine”. This way the Scottish Games wanted to show solidarity and respect to the Ukrainian community. Jim Engle, the president of the Scottish Games, told us how the newborn tartan was adopted.
“Colleen Nicholson, our past president, went online and saw a company named Great Scot located in Great Britain…” Engle said. “They had registered a Ukrainian national tartan based on the colors of the Ukrainian flag. So we thought it was a beautiful flag, and our Ukrainian community in Syracuse is very large, so why not support this country.”
It was intriguing how Engle was bringing different stories that connected people in the Syracuse community with Ukraine. Another story was related to a local bagpipe band.
“It just so happens that one of the local bagpipe bands … has the Ukrainian National Home in Syracuse as their practice site,” Engle said. “So a couple of members from that bagpipe band ended up playing the Ukrainian national anthem on the bagpipes.”
Colleen Nicholson, the former-president of Scottish Games, just published her recap of the previous years at the festival, so if you want to learn what to expect at the festival, you might want to watch it.
