The Paeroa Highland Games and Tattoo took place last weekend. Photo / Kathy Bland
The Paeroa Highland Games and Tattoo took place last weekend. Photo / Kathy Bland
The Paeroa Highland Games and Tattoo festival brought some Scottish spirit to the Hauraki District last weekend.
The festival amped up at the Paeroa Domain, celebrating the Scottish culture with music, competitions and performances.
Contestants measured themselves in bagpiping, highland dancing, weight throwing and caber (long, heavy wooden pole) toss competitions.
The event also included a so-called Ode to the Haggis ceremony which evolves around the traditional Scottish meat dish. For this, the Haggis was marched onto the grounds, alongside a sword and whisky, to the sounds of bagpipes.
This was followed by a recitation of the Gaelic poem Address to a Haggis by Scottish poet Robert Burns. Ceremony participants then had a shot of whisky, before pieces of Haggis were distributed to the crowd, with bagpipes playing in the background.
“The crowd was excellent, people were having a really good time. Some even stayed for the whole 12 hours of the event.”
Hornell said not all parts of the programme were related to the Scottish culture, with the event also featuring circus performances and a Steampunk fashion show, but people looking for new ink would not get lucky.
Contestants measured themselves in weight throwing (pictured) and caber toss competitions. Photo / Kathy Bland
“We get asked about this a lot, but tattoo here is based on the Edinburgh Tattoo.”
The Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo is an annual series of music and marching performances by the British Armed Forces, Commonwealth and other military bands.
At this year’s Paeroa tattoo, 12 pipe bands and two youth bands from all over the North Island participated.
“The weather played its part and was warm and dry. People from all over the country had made the journey to be a part of this event and town was buzzing with activity.
The festival also included an Ode to the Haggis ceremony. Photo / Kathy Bland
“A huge shout out to all the volunteers and the committee that worked hard pulling together an event of this size.”
The festival started as a pipe bands contest in 1993 but has quickly grown into a wider festival with an evening tattoo.
There are about three other highland games events across New Zealand, but the one in Paeroa was the only one with an evening tattoo, Hornell said.
