McPherson Scots Talk The Clans and Associates of the McPherson Scottish Festival & Games

We had another good year at the festival. Everyone enjoyed the festival this year again,  impressed as always, by the park that we have the festival in so we want to give our thanks to the park department and city for letting us use the park.

The Friday ceremony and supper went off without any major problems. Laird McGregor did a wonderful job for us on the Friday gathering. The supper works good in the cabin and I think it should continued to be used in the future.

Dr. Earl Estill and Nancy Dunn did a great job on Sunday’s Kirking, the clan representative for Clan Campbell said it was one of the best services he had been to.

Lottie Herod of Clan McLean took care of the Hospitality tent in in a grand manner with the help of friends and relatives. Nancy McArthur Cochner of Clan Arthur has accepted to be the host for next year.

We had 26 clans registered and 25 attending. Three of those clans are new clans or have new representatives for their clans. Saturday’s rain sent some clans home early and we had water in a couple of tents. Getting more than 26 or 27 clans accommodated will be addressed on where to place them. If anyone has any suggestions on how to gain more space and still have good foot traffic give me your suggestions.

We are continuing to have the clans have their AGM meetings in the area or during the festival. This is wonderful and we wish to do what we can to encourage their participation.

SAMS “Scottish American Military Society”, have their local AGM here yearly and are going to try and have their national here in the future. Clans Arthur and McPherson are having their AGM meetings in Wichita during or just before the festival. Hopefully they will bring some of their officers to enjoy our festival. Clan Hay is hoping to have their AGM here in 2013 We need to Ann Hastler put together a list of rooms and caterers and local entertainment to supply to anyone wanting to organize their meetings.

It was Suggested by several clans to have the theme of the festival be one of honoring the soldiers and warriors

Lottie Herod suggested that some festivals read a short history of the clans at the sat noonday ceremony.

The SAMS asked if we could have them as an honor guard at the beginning of the sat noonday ceremony. We would like to know what everyone thinks of this idea.

The clans asked about the knobby knee contest and the favorite clans contest so I am going to look into doing something each year.

We need to promote the Friday ceremony more than we do.

We will be promoting the Saturday entertainment more with the clans next year.

Clans represented

We had 25 clans in attendance

2 last minute cancellations: Clans Ross and MacNachtan

New clans Clan Aurther, Crawford, Ferguson, Mackay

New Clan representatives: Clan Davidson, Clan McPherson

New clan layout: The additional space from the new layout worked well although clan Elliot said their traffic was down some.

Host clan recognition: Clan Henderson did a wonderful job being Host Clan this year.

2010 Host clan: Clan MacLean with Lottie Herod, has agreed to be the Host for 2010

AGM meetings: Clan Stewart Society of America Had Their AGM at the Festival And all went well.

Clan Little had Their AGM also and had a good time with it here.

The Scottish Military Society Had their AGM here. They stated they will have it here every year

Family reunion The MacLain Family reunion went well and everyone had a good time. Carol Beck said that she would have it here again in the future

Fire ceremony Unfortunately thee Fire Ceremony had to be canceled because of rain.

We should feel fortunate that we have such good weather for our Festival.

Hoggis The hoggis went on as planed in the Lakeside Cabin With several clans saying it worked well there.

Knobby knee contest Bruce Hay Was the winner of the knobby knee contest We had eight brave men that entered to show off their knee

Favorite clan tent John Grant was the winner of the favorite Clan Tent contest, he was surprised to win but he has been here for many years and was deserving of the recognition

Kirkin Reverend Wolcott introduced Reverend Dr. Earl Estill. He a wonderful job for the Kirkin and the service. We had some trouble with the lining up of the tartans because we need some better steps for getting on the stage

Genealogy The genealogy tent had good traffic as usual.

2008 McPherson Scottish Festival Report

There were twenty-seven registered clans this year, of those, four were new clans or clan representatives, Clan Ross, Clan Cameron, Clan Hay, Clan MacBean and Clan Blair. Our faithful friends Barclay, Donald, Grant, Donnachaidh, McInnis, were here And Clan Gunn, canceled at the last minute and MacFarlane was unable to make it due to health reasons. Clan Gordon, and Clan MacKintosh, returned to celebrate with us again this year. We also had Clan MacNachtan, Clan Scot and Clan McLennan represented by the spouses of other clans and the Scottish militia society “SAMS” as well.

Clan Little was the host clan with their honored guest John Little “president” of Clan Little Society of N.A.. John and Ellen did an excellent job of hosting the clans. Next year they suggested that we should have a knobby knee contest and a haggis throwing contest. As well as a prize for the best clan display judged, by an outsider or new sponsor. What do you think?

Our new friends at Clan Ross Cameron, Hay and Clan MacBean are a great addition to our family. They are new this year and Clan Mackenzie and others have been here for the last two games. New clans are what keep us growing and we are glad that you have joined us and hope to see you again next year. Clan Henderson was selected to be the Host Clan for 2009 The Henderson’s have been a strong supporter of the games. Clan Gordon has been with us for several years, Dick Milne “Santa”, passed away shortly after his retirement as well as several other of our friends and family and will be remembered by many for touching our lives. We need the pictures of these individuals for the memorial page on the website.

We are glad that they were able to join us at the Fire Ceremony and Clan Gathering on Friday night. There were between 100-110 people at the hog-gis roast following the ceremony. There was no confusion about the time of the banquet. Homer was resourceful as usual and pulled us through having feed the multitudes on a load of bread and a extra meat that he provided. Krehbiel’s have been great supporters of Friday night. He also spoke well of the Highland Cattle who had contacted us earlier in the year to help sponsor the Friday night event. I think that they are both good vendors to have.

Clan MacIntyre arrived with their father Gail who recovered well from his surgery. He still paid in advance even though he cannot remember missing the festival last year. Unfortunately Gail lost his wife this year, we should keep Clan MacIntyre in our thoughts and prayers.

My friends at Clan Davidson, Larry Davidson may not be returning next year as he may be retiring from their commission. Clan MacLean as well as a couple of others let me know that there were some errors during the Noon Day Ceremony that need to be corrected. I am glad that they brought this to Joe’s and my attention so we can improve the experience for everyone at the festival. We try to do things right and fail sometimes, but that will not stop us from trying. We had their name omitted for the announcements and others were in the wrong order, but we were also having trouble getting late entries in the lineup. We had phone connection problems on stage.

Rev. Robert Wolcott and I presented the offering from the Kirkin of the Tartan on Sunday morning to the Ministerial Alliance.

Reverend Wolcott, spoke to me before the festival about the Kirking and his role he is undergone some changes in his responsibilities. He is delighted to be involved, and has invited Earl Ester to help with the Kirking to give us more depth. I think that he has been growing in his effect and presentation both on Friday night and the Kirking ceremony.  He indicated that he thought that there was better response to the Kirking this year. I think having the smaller tent was better this year. The McPherson Children’s Arts Council Choir was smartly received, but the Bagpipes overshadowed the children’s voices. We also had some trouble with the sound system. We were recording the Friday night event and need to see if we can get a copy from Chuck Vetter.

We had the organ grinders again this year,at the clan MacLeod both this year, the second grinder-man has a louder grinder and being the near host clan were positioned in a better position near the children’s activities in the vicinity clear of any other venues. Everyone enjoyed them, it was just to bad that we had to find out too late that they need to be placed where they do not conflict with other events. We should contact them about next year in only having one here in the same location not being next to the clans.

The festival was a great success from all that I spoke to.  I think that a children’s theme for this year was a great success and should be continued in some form.