Scottish Highland Games 2009 – Chicago

This was the first year for Mel and I to go to the Scottish Highland Games in Oakbrook, IL (chicago area). We have been to others before, just not in Chicago.

The folks at the Illinois St. Andrews Society put on the games and in general I think they did a fine job. Especially given the horrible weather conditions they were dealt the first night of the games.

I had intended to take some pictures but never ended up doing so.  We had considered purchasing the Patron package ($75/person) as it was described as comprehensive on their website, but unfortunately the website isn’t laid out in such a way as to really understand what’s going on during the festival (see below). So we opted to just pay the one day price ($17/person) Saturday morning and wing it.

My wife says I tend to hype things in my mind so I end up expecting more than I should, but I really had very high hopes for the Scottish games. I was a little let down, but that was probably my unrealistic expectations. Here are some ideas for improvements from an “outsider”, they are not intended to be criticisms but opportunities for improvement…

1. Get the parking situation figured out

The weather service was calling for severe weather the weekend of the event more than 10 days in advance.  I realized the heavy rains caused havoc in the plans, but there should have been contingencies.  When we arrived at 11am (2 hours after the gates opened) they had all cars diverting to a parking lot roughly 2 miles from the grounds due to the regular parking area (a grassy area) being flooded.  That’s a perfect solution, assuming you have shuttles.  Well they did have shuttles. Only problem was the shuttles were the small mini-bus kind that could hold about 20 people.  There were over 100 people in line when we got out of our car and we stood in line for about 15 minutes before even seeing a shuttle. We decided to walk and saw a shuttle pull into the parking lot shortly there after.  Later in the afternoon we headed back to our car and I figured the shuttle issues would have been resolved. Nope. 50 or so people in line and same number and size of shuttles. We walked 2 miles. Again.

2. Better schedule

The schedule is laid out by “event” and then each event has a time below it like so:

“Pipe Band competition”
2:00pm level 1
3:00pm level 2

“Heavy games”
2:00pm caber toss
3:00pm hammer throw

It makes it nearly impossible to plan out your day. The schedule needs to be like this:

3. Shaded seating area

There are absolutely NO shaded seating areas except over by the “rock stage”. I had no idea this was going to be the case so I didn’t bring a chair or shade device other than my hat.  Which meant we got tired and hot and ended up leaving early, depriving the merchants of our dollars for the remaining 6 hours of the event. We would have stayed longer with more shade. Next year I’m bringing a chair and if the forecast is for heat, an umbrella or something. If budget doesn’t allow for more open tents near the venues then make sure folks are told they can, and should, bring a chair/umbrella.

4. More/Better merchants

This ones hard to do. I’ve run a small conference and been a vendor myself at others and you can’t just create vendors/merchants out of thin air. There’s also a point of diminishing return. You want merchants/vendors that are related to the event in some way. You don’t want a company like Bath Fitters at a Scottish highland games. No wait..they were there.  *sigh* Don’t get me wrong, the selection was diverse and 99% of the merchants were somehow related to the event…but after walking around the tents for the third time in 2 hours I turned to my wife and said “I wish they had more”. In particular I was in the market for a kilt and entire “kit”. However, it looked like none of the merchants where in that business. Maybe most people at the games already have theirs. We spent an hour looking for someone with a McAlister tartan kilt. Nobody. So we traded down and looked for anyone with anything McAlister. We found one scarf.  With literally thousands of tartans I realize not having every possible version is possible, but as far as I can tell McAlister isn’t a small clan _and_ they have a US chapter. We also tried to find some celtic/scottish jewelry for Mel, but the selection just wasn’t there so she ended up buying an $8 fake green emerald bracelet. Maybe encouraging vendors to have bigger tents by giving them more room next year for the same price? There’s plenty of floor space as far as I can tell.

It was obvious to me that the coordinators have the games and pipe portion figured out…maybe next year a bigger focus on the merchants could be tried.

5. The website needs more information for the new comer or an FAQ section or something

Things that I could not figure out before coming.

- A map of the area showing event locations, merchant locations, local streets. I had no idea where to park and I had no idea where things where when I showed up. I had to wander around the venues for an hour just to figure out what was where. At other conferences/events you usually get a map of where all the venue areas are in relation to entry and parking.

- What exactly the ticket(s) covered. For example, the Patron ticket said “full access to the Whiskey” tent. But I couldn’t find anything about the Whiskey tent and what that meant I had access to. Once at the games I saw the Whiskey tent had 4 or 5 whiskey vendors and the price to access was based on number of tickets (eg: tastings) you wanted. I still don’t know what the Patron ticket would have gotten me.

- What should I bring? (see #3 above)

- What “customs” are used by the old timers. Things like people setting up chairs around the pipe circle hours before the event. I’m okay with that, but it would be useful to know so I’m not 5 rows back.

Things that were done well

So that people don’t think I’m just a whiner, here are some things that I thought were done really well.

- The “food” area was laid out in a logical way and far enough away from the other events to make lines not an issue…but not too far away to make you think twice about going to get something. I regret not trying a meat pie…I heard people walking by saying they were good.

- As far as I could tell the piping event was done to perfection with groups coming in and out like clock work

- The entry was well staffed and we easily got paid and inside

All in all, we had a very good time and we will be coming back next year!! But there’s always an opportunity for improvement.