2008 August :: Kiltmakers.co.uk :: Latest News & Offers

My Tartan Day

Article added by: David on 13 August 2008

As webmaster here at kiltmakers.co.uk you can guess that Tartan Day is quite a big deal! Here’s my Diary from the day:

An air of excitement filled my house on the morning of Saturday 2^nd August; it was Aberdeen’s 5^th annual Tartan Day. This day is close to my heart as thousands of people celebrate our Scottish heritage, culture, language and the way tartan keeps our traditions alive.

As I left my house to catch the bus to our shop in Schoolhill I was stopped by a young man who asked if he could take my photograph as he was intrigued by my kilt, funny to think I will now be in his photo album, this made me feel very proud of my heritage!

Looking around me on my way to the shop I could see the streets busy and adorned with tartan and on approaching the stall that we had set up outside the shop I was thrilled to see it was buzzing with activity. As I got closer I realised why our stall was so busy, we had teamed up with the local distillery Glen Garioch to offer people a taste of the local whisky, it’s smooth taste proved to be a very popular choice!

At 11 O.clock the Junior Buchan Pipe Band warmed up their pipes, the drummers their sticks and we were treated to an impressive music delight. The band drew the crowd in to enjoy the performance, although they didn’t seem to stray too far away from the whisky! Jill McHaffie who is in charge of the band told me that the youngest member is eleven years old and the Pipe Major who leads the band as they play was the oldest at nineteen. They have competed in competitions and next year they will be in contention for the top honours.

At midday a mass tartan march began along Union Street by the Royal Scottish Pipe Band Association, made up of 10 pipe bands and comprising 120 pipers. Following on from the pipe bands was the pageant parade which included performers from the Aberdeen International Youth Festival costumed historic characters, dignitaries and some local celebrities, I later learned that the characters were a battle re-enactment group and they were to perform later in the afternoon.

After lunch I went along to Union Terrace Gardens where Stephen Robertson officially opened the afternoon’s proceedings. He was part of the famous comedy group from Aberdeen called “Scotland The What” along with George Donald and Buff Hardie. In more recent times, he has been awarded with the freedom of the city and been made Rector of Aberdeen University. Suffice to say, he gave a very funny speech to open proceedings. This was followed by a Scottish tribal drumming band called Albannach that features a piper, accompanied by energetic drumming.

I finally headed back to our shop to discover the Junior Buchan Pipe Band was still playing at 3:30, still managing to draw in a crowd. Unfortunately this was the end of my tartan day, but what a wonderful day and a wonderful event, I can’t wait until next year!

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