Radford Highlanders Festival brings culture, fun and tradition

Live performances, vibrant sheepherding demonstrations, mouth-watering food, Scottish crafts, and activities for all ages—along with the thrilling heavyweight games—make the Radford Highlanders Festival a can't-miss event. Mark your calendars for Saturday, Oct. 12, when Radford University hosts this engaging celebration of Scots-Irish heritage. A collaboration between Radford University and the City of Radford, the festival is open to everyone with free admission.

Each year, the Radford Highlanders Festival presents musical acts for the audience’s listening pleasure, and this year, the modern Irish sounds of The Fighting Jamesons from Virginia Beach, Virginia, will take the festival main stage.  Joining them, Geoff White infuses Celtic, old-time, and even some Cajun influences into his playing for a unique brand of fiddling.

The Fighting Jamesons will play three shows on the main stage at 11 a.m., 1:45 p.m. and 3:45 p.m. White takes the festival main stage two times at 12:30 p.m. and 2:45 p.m. 

Celtic folk duo, Kinnfolk, from Roanoke, Virginia, will play at the Clocks Plaza at 12:30 p.m. and 2:45 p.m.  Also playing at the Clocks Plaza, PanJammers, an award-winning steel drum orchestra based in Blacksburg, Virginia, will play at 11 a.m. Highland dancer Claire Pollitt will perform at 10:45 a.m. and 2:20 p.m. Hollace Oakes and Friends will delight the Highlanders Festival crowd at 1:30 p.m. 

Throughout the day, festivalgoers can seek out unique experiences such as sheepherding demonstrations, children’s games and pipe and drum bands. Several unique craft and food vendors will be at the festival, offering authentic Scottish fare and such tasty classic festival food as pizzas, burgers and delicious funnel cakes.  

A massed band performance and Scottish clans march is again scheduled for this year’s festival at noon. Clans, a concept dating back to the 12th century, were extended networks of families loyal to a particular chief. The word clan is derived from the Gaelic 'clann,' meaning children.

The popular heavyweight games will feature the traditional events and competitions associated with rural and military life, including weights for distance and height; the stones, similar to modern-day shotput; the sheaf toss; and the crowd-pleasing caber toss.

The Highlanders Festival began in the mid-1990s with about 3,000 people attending. Since then, the festival has more than tripled in size and now attracts an estimated gathering of 10,000 people each October.

To learn more about the Radford Highlanders Festival, visit https://www.radford.edu/content/festival/home.html. You may also follow the Highlanders Festival on Facebook.