Category Archives: VHGA News

2017 Tartan Day celebrations

Tartan Day - May 8th 2017The Victoria Highland Games Association hosted the annual TARTAN DAY celebrations on Saturday, April 8, 2017, at Centennial Square in recognition of ‘National Tartan Day’.

Performances from the Vancouver Island Caledonia Pipe Band, the Tartan Day Highland Dancers, VHGA Heavy Events Athletes, Gaelic Choir and Knacker’s Yard were enjoyed by hundreds of spectators over the afternoon.

Although the day started off a little “misty”, the sun came out for the last half of the event and dried everything out!  A great event to get everyone ready for Highland Games Week in May!

Games to host Canadian and World Championships

The Victoria Highland Games Association is happy to announce two very exciting years of Heavy Events competitions happening over the next two years at the Victoria Highland Games.

First up in 2017 for the 154th Victoria Highland Games we will be bringing in the top ten throwers from across Canada for the CSAF Canadian Men’s Championships. We last hosted the Canadian Championships in 2012 and it was a very exciting day of throwing and I am sure it will be another exciting competition for all.

In 2018 for our 155th anniversary we are very pleased and honoured to be hosting David Webster’s Scottish Heavy Events World Championships, this will bring the very best of the best from across the globe to Victoria. We hosted these championships in 2010 and were amazed at the level of the competition and look forward to another amazing competition filled with big throws.

Stay tuned for more information as we progress with the organization of these great championship and buckle in for a very exciting couple of years at the Victoria Highland Games.

VHGA is holding two full days of solo and pipe band competitions in 2016

The VHGA has been attracting more competitors (Dancers, Solo and Pipe Band, Heavy Events and Drum Majors) and increasing attendance at the Victoria Highland Games over the last few years by adding new events and format changes.

Based on the feedback that we have received over the years, in 2016 we will be expanding the pipe band and solo competitions to a full 2 day schedule (Saturday and Sunday,  May 21/ 22).   Our hope is that more solo competitors and bands will attend the Games and take in the high quality and variety of events, including the Heavy events, Highland and Irish dance competitions, Celtic sports, Whisky school, Celtic music, Entertainment stages and the Heritage and Clansman tents.

The new 3-day format (including the holiday Monday) has expanded the number of activities held at the Games, which will continue to grow in 2016. The Highland Games & Celtic Festival will continue to run through to Monday with a Drum Major demonstration featuring Jason Paguio, the multiple World Drum Major Champion. For the first time, we are hosting an Irish Dance competition on the Monday.

We are also happy to announce that the LA Scots from Los Angeles will be competing at the 2016 Grade 1 (Full) band contest. The LA Scots and Greighlan Crossing Pipe Band are the Duty Bands for the 2016 Highland Games & Celtic Festival over the 3 day weekend.

The 2016 Canadian Invitational Drum Major Championship will also be running at the same time and we are pleased to announce that John Noble will be coming from Scotland to act as the head drum major judge. In addition, Bruce Gandy from Nova Scotia will be joining the judging panel. An Open Piobaireachd competition will again be held on Saturday at the Games’ site.

More details to come in January regarding the format and event listing for the piping, drumming and drum major competitions.

VHGA has a new website

The new website is up and running.

The idea is to make it faster and easier for everybody to find the information they need. Some of the new features of the site are:

Navigation System

A new main navigation menu that answers all the most common questions people have about the festival, which are:

Easy Banners

The new site has an easy-to-use banner system, so news about specific areas of the festival can be posted (and updated) at any time. You can see some of these banners in place at the top of some of the pages (golden background).

Event Schedule

The event schedule board is directly connected to Google Calendar. Different people can have access to each calendar and update events and times. There are two things to keep in mind here:

  1. A single calendar cannot have overlapping events.
  2. Any changes to the calendars in Google might take up to 12 hours to propagate to the site.

Buttons at the Schedule page allow you to isolate the day and venue you want.

Grounds Map

A new grounds map available in all pages (sidebar) allows you to consult places that are being mentioned everywhere in the site.

Association & Craigflower Manor

Information about VHGA, including other events, and Craigflower Manor have been isolated, already considering future migrations to specific sites.

Multiple Forms

At this moment, the site has only one “Contact Form“. Nevertheless, this new site structure allows for as many forms as needed, collecting different information in different forms, having different recipients for each one of them.