SCOTS, SLAVS ALSO HOLDING CELEBRATIONS THIS MONTH
By Scott Iwasaki, Staff Writer
Published: Friday, June 9, 1995 12:00 a.m. MDT
The month of June should be renamed Festival Month. In addition the Salt Lake Arts Festival, Scottish and Slavic communities are holding their annual celebrations as well.
The 21st annual Scottish Festival and Highland Games will be held at historic Fort Douglas on Saturday, June 10. The gates open at 8 a.m., and the Color Guard opening ceremony will commence at 9 a.m. The festival winds down at 5 p.m. Admission is $6. Children 12 and younger are admitted without charge.Almost a week later, the music and food of the 13th annual Slavic Festival will fill the Utah Gallivan Center on Friday and Saturday, June 16 and 17. Friday's events begin at 7 p.m., while Saturday's schedule gets under way at 5 p.m. Both nights' celebrations end at midnight. Admission is $4 for adults, $2 for children and senior citizens.
During the festivals, foods, music and programs will emphasize and represent the nationalities of each community.
For John Holmes, president of the Utah Scottish Association, the Scottish Festival touches his heart with a feeling he wants to share with everyone. To do this, the festival serves two main purposes.
"First of all, it gives members of our community an arena of competition for Highland dancing, bagpipes and athletic events," Holmes said. "Second, the festival gives all people who attend a sense of how much fun it is being a Scot. We can reach out to people and give them a better view of who we are. We're more than bagpipes, kilts and telephone-pole throwers."
Virginia Barclay, who has been involved with the festival since it started in 1974, said the other objective is to give young people in the area a chance to develop their skills in competition.
"They can dance, drum and bagpipe the best they can without traveling around," she said. "And that's not mentioning the athletic events."
Throughout the day, athletes will participate in hammer and weight throws for height and distance, and sheaf and caber tosses. The caber, Holmes said, is that "telephone pole" everyone talks about. Children will also be able to participate in pony rides and lawn bowling.
In addition to the music and athletic competitions, Donnie MacDonald will be on hand for a free music concert, and clan (the Gaelic word for family), food and vending booths will be set up throughout the scene.
"There are about 25 to 30 clans represented here," said Holmes. "Our goal is to get all the clans in the area represented."
Clan crests, histories and claims to fame will be available to anyone interested, said Barclay, as will jewelry, stained-glass windows, tartan ties, books, videos, tapes and packaged foods.
A program called "Flowers of the Forest" begins at noon.
"This is the time we bid farewell to those who have passed on," said Holmes. "A lone piper will send the spirits on their way."
The theme for this year's Slavic Festival is "Polka Under the Stars." And the festival's general director Karen Zinner promises the event will live up to that concept.
"Once the music gets going, the stars are out and the air is fresh, people just get in the mood to dance," Zinner said. "You really feel free."
The festival - which celebrates the diversity of countries such as Belarus, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czechoslovakia, Macedonia, Poland, Russia, Ukraine and Yugoslavia, among others - was originally created 13 years ago to get people together for an informal Slavic celebration, unlike weddings and funerals, said Zinner.
"It all started based on a conversation a few of us had with a couple from Yugoslavia who owned a tavern," Zinner recalled. "We put an ad in the paper and planned on having a Slavic dinner at the Memorial House in Memory Grove."
The response to the ad, Zinner said, was overwhelming. So the next year the dinner was moved to the Old Mill, where it remained until 1992, when the Old Mill stopped renting.
For the past three years the Slavic Festival has been held in the Gallivan Center downtown and has attracted an increasing number of people each year.
"Not only are locals coming, but people as far away as Idaho, Oregon and Colorado are planning to show," said Zinner.
As for the evening's events, polka bands from Utah, Washington and Wyoming will perform and the Zivio and Narodna International Dancers will display their cultural movements. Also on tap will be public Slavic line dances.
Jan Root, band and choir director for Zivio Ethnic Arts Ensemble of Salt Lake, said that in the past people who had never tried Slavic line dances had trouble getting the rhythm down.
"At first the counting would throw them off, but with the resurging popularity of country-western line dances, people are getting their courage up and trying these basic steps," Root said. "The rhythms are a little odd, but once they feel it, they find the music's pauses are worked in comfortably and naturally."
In addition to the music and dance, Slavic food and handmade crafts will be available.
"Clothes and musical instruments from Eastern European countries are just a few of the things people can see and purchase," said Root. Among the food offerings "there will be knedliky - fruit-filled dumplings - and perogi, which are meat or potato filled dumplings that are very delicious and fattening, and kielbasa (sausage)."
Last year more than 3,000 people attended the festival, said Zinner. This time around, the event, she promised, will be bigger and better.
"It's so wonderful seeing people getting together and having a good time," she said. "The festival is for people of all races who are interested in the Slavic culture. But remember, this is a cultural festival. Though we are very sensitive of the turmoil that's occurring in the Slavic countries today, we ask everyone to please leave their politics at the door."
© 2009 Deseret News Publishing Company | All rights reserved
By Scott Iwasaki, Staff Writer
Published: Friday, June 9, 1995 12:00 a.m. MDT
The month of June should be renamed Festival Month. In addition the Salt Lake Arts Festival, Scottish and Slavic communities are holding their annual celebrations as well.
The 21st annual Scottish Festival and Highland Games will be held at historic Fort Douglas on Saturday, June 10. The gates open at 8 a.m., and the Color Guard opening ceremony will commence at 9 a.m. The festival winds down at 5 p.m. Admission is $6. Children 12 and younger are admitted without charge.Almost a week later, the music and food of the 13th annual Slavic Festival will fill the Utah Gallivan Center on Friday and Saturday, June 16 and 17. Friday's events begin at 7 p.m., while Saturday's schedule gets under way at 5 p.m. Both nights' celebrations end at midnight. Admission is $4 for adults, $2 for children and senior citizens.
During the festivals, foods, music and programs will emphasize and represent the nationalities of each community.
For John Holmes, president of the Utah Scottish Association, the Scottish Festival touches his heart with a feeling he wants to share with everyone. To do this, the festival serves two main purposes.
"First of all, it gives members of our community an arena of competition for Highland dancing, bagpipes and athletic events," Holmes said. "Second, the festival gives all people who attend a sense of how much fun it is being a Scot. We can reach out to people and give them a better view of who we are. We're more than bagpipes, kilts and telephone-pole throwers."
Virginia Barclay, who has been involved with the festival since it started in 1974, said the other objective is to give young people in the area a chance to develop their skills in competition.
"They can dance, drum and bagpipe the best they can without traveling around," she said. "And that's not mentioning the athletic events."
Throughout the day, athletes will participate in hammer and weight throws for height and distance, and sheaf and caber tosses. The caber, Holmes said, is that "telephone pole" everyone talks about. Children will also be able to participate in pony rides and lawn bowling.
In addition to the music and athletic competitions, Donnie MacDonald will be on hand for a free music concert, and clan (the Gaelic word for family), food and vending booths will be set up throughout the scene.
"There are about 25 to 30 clans represented here," said Holmes. "Our goal is to get all the clans in the area represented."
Clan crests, histories and claims to fame will be available to anyone interested, said Barclay, as will jewelry, stained-glass windows, tartan ties, books, videos, tapes and packaged foods.
A program called "Flowers of the Forest" begins at noon.
"This is the time we bid farewell to those who have passed on," said Holmes. "A lone piper will send the spirits on their way."
The theme for this year's Slavic Festival is "Polka Under the Stars." And the festival's general director Karen Zinner promises the event will live up to that concept.
"Once the music gets going, the stars are out and the air is fresh, people just get in the mood to dance," Zinner said. "You really feel free."
The festival - which celebrates the diversity of countries such as Belarus, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czechoslovakia, Macedonia, Poland, Russia, Ukraine and Yugoslavia, among others - was originally created 13 years ago to get people together for an informal Slavic celebration, unlike weddings and funerals, said Zinner.
"It all started based on a conversation a few of us had with a couple from Yugoslavia who owned a tavern," Zinner recalled. "We put an ad in the paper and planned on having a Slavic dinner at the Memorial House in Memory Grove."
The response to the ad, Zinner said, was overwhelming. So the next year the dinner was moved to the Old Mill, where it remained until 1992, when the Old Mill stopped renting.
For the past three years the Slavic Festival has been held in the Gallivan Center downtown and has attracted an increasing number of people each year.
"Not only are locals coming, but people as far away as Idaho, Oregon and Colorado are planning to show," said Zinner.
As for the evening's events, polka bands from Utah, Washington and Wyoming will perform and the Zivio and Narodna International Dancers will display their cultural movements. Also on tap will be public Slavic line dances.
Jan Root, band and choir director for Zivio Ethnic Arts Ensemble of Salt Lake, said that in the past people who had never tried Slavic line dances had trouble getting the rhythm down.
"At first the counting would throw them off, but with the resurging popularity of country-western line dances, people are getting their courage up and trying these basic steps," Root said. "The rhythms are a little odd, but once they feel it, they find the music's pauses are worked in comfortably and naturally."
In addition to the music and dance, Slavic food and handmade crafts will be available.
"Clothes and musical instruments from Eastern European countries are just a few of the things people can see and purchase," said Root. Among the food offerings "there will be knedliky - fruit-filled dumplings - and perogi, which are meat or potato filled dumplings that are very delicious and fattening, and kielbasa (sausage)."
Last year more than 3,000 people attended the festival, said Zinner. This time around, the event, she promised, will be bigger and better.
"It's so wonderful seeing people getting together and having a good time," she said. "The festival is for people of all races who are interested in the Slavic culture. But remember, this is a cultural festival. Though we are very sensitive of the turmoil that's occurring in the Slavic countries today, we ask everyone to please leave their politics at the door."
© 2009 Deseret News Publishing Company | All rights reserved
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