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Kansas City Irish Festivals, Music, Pubs, & Events by an Artist in Ireland

Looking for the 2009 Kansas City Scottish Festival - click here

The information below relates to the 2008 festival.

A reminder that there is practically a festival of Irish music at the KC Scottish Highland Games this weekend.

The history of our two nations are rather enmeshed with each other so there tends to be overlaps in our history and heritage. That said don’t make the mistake of equating Ireland and Scotland as if they are one country; there is a sea between them and seas make for powerful borders - and more permanent borders than a land border such as exist between Scotland and England.

And since we’re freely dispensing advice, try not to use the word Scotch in place of the word Scottish. Scotch is pretty much only ever whisky. Except when it’s an egg. Or in America, tape.

Also in America you tend to get away with Scotch-Irish to describe the Ulster-Scots, (or Scots-Irish) - but only because you’ve done it for so long. Don’t be so persistent with putting that “e” into Scotch to make it Scotch Whiskey though, as that makes it neither Scotch nor Irish Whiskey (which does have the “e”) and so only upsets two nations. And over a drink, no less.

The only other time I can think when you might use the word Scotch is when you are talking about something that somebody else isn’t talking about. I’m talking about Scotch Mist, but in America you’d probably be talking about Chopped Liver.

Friday night saw Flannigan’s Right Hook and The Elders perform at the Scottish Games, but there’s still 2 full days of the 3-day festival left.

If you’re interested in those that play Irish music and songs, you’ll want to keep an eye out for the following acts in the Entertainment Tent:

Sat 3:15pm The Kelihans
Sat 4:30pm Kelly

Sun 12:30pm Bob Reeder
Sun 2:00pm Kelly

If you’ve never been to a Scottish festival in America before, you’re in for a treat with such a variety of activities and entertainment that defies categorization.

The Highland Games themselves might sound a bit gimmicky or freaky, but once you start watching you’ll be caught up and won’t want to stop.

But go, and learn somethings about Scottish Heritage and then learn about where it fits in with Irish history - unless you’re solely Scottish in which case just go. Learn some Scots Gaelic, learn about the harp (the instrument not bad Irish lager), wool weaving, kilt demonstrations, sheepdog trials, fly fishing for kids, pipes and drums, lots of pipes and drums, whiskey tasting, sword fighting (unrelated) and it just goes on and on, and usually to the sound of rifle shots on the hour. There’s nothing much like it in Kansas City.

Check out the very extensive offical website for all the information you might ever want.

The Kansas City Scottish Highland Games runs from June 13-15, 2008 at the E. H. Young Riverfront Park in Riverside, Missouri. They close at 11pm on Saturday and at 4pm on Sunday.

This entry was posted on Friday, June 13th, 2008 at 10:55 pm and is filed under Bob Reeder, Elders, Events, Festivals, Flannigan's Right Hook, Kelihans, Kelly, Scotland. You can follow responses via my RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.