Geelong Highland Gathering

The 52nd Geelong Highland Gathering, on Sunday, March 8, 2009, will include Scottish Heavy Games, including caber tossing. The Victorian Pipe Band Championships will be held a feature of the Gathering, first held on the plains of South Geelong, then open space and now a heavily populated Geelong suburb, in 1857. The Gathering went into recess during the Depression, but was revived by the then Newtown City Council in 1957 and has been held continuously ever since at picturesque Queens Park, often referred to as “the Braemar of Australia”.

It has grown into the biggest and most diverse celebration of Scottish culture in Victoria and one of the major Scottish events in Australia attracting interstate and sometimes overseas bands and Scottish and other overseas judges. The Gathering, from 9.30am to 5.30pm, attracts upwards of 6000 people annually. Scottish historic military re-enactment groups, massed pipe bands displays, Highland Dancing competitions, Scottish Country Dancing displays, a Celtic Market, Scottish Folk Music, Scottish dogs and horses and Highland Cattle are all a part of the traditional mix. There will also be clan and other cultural and genealogical displays, wood-chopping competitions, archery, children’s activities and a children’s farmyard. A great family occasion, entry charges apply.