Elizabeth Colorado Celtic Festival

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Greg Livingston
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Joined: Wed Jul 22, 2009 11:42 pm
Location: Ankeny, IA, USA

Elizabeth Colorado Celtic Festival

Post by Greg Livingston »

To all the MacLeas, Livingstones, Livingstons and all other variations of the name that are in the Colorado area and more specifically in the Denver area, come on down to Elizabeth Colorado on Saturday and Sunday, July 17th & 18th and visit your clan tent! This will be the first games/festival where we will have a clan tent so the more that show up the more comfortable I'll be. ;)
Greg Livingston
Clan Commissioner
Northglenn, Colorado, USA
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Kyle MacLea
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Re: Elizabeth Colorado Celtic Festival

Post by Kyle MacLea »

Wish I could be there, too, Greg. You know I'll be at the next 2, but I'm really hoping you see some folks there.

I'll pass your note to the DNA Project list-serv too.

Have you also tried advertising your presence on XMTS? Perhaps some X-Marks folks will stop by and say hello?

Kyle=
Kyle S. MacLea
Clan Society Life Member; DNA Project Co-Admin
New Hampshire, USA
kyle -dot- maclea -at- gmail -dot- com
Greg Livingston
Posts: 308
Joined: Wed Jul 22, 2009 11:42 pm
Location: Ankeny, IA, USA

Re: Elizabeth Colorado Celtic Festival

Post by Greg Livingston »

Allready planned for an XMarks meet up at the Clan MacLea (Livingstone) tent. :D And mentioned several times there.
Greg Livingston
Clan Commissioner
Northglenn, Colorado, USA
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Kyle MacLea
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Location: New Hampshire, USA
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Re: Elizabeth Colorado Celtic Festival

Post by Kyle MacLea »

Hey, why not? If anyone makes it to HR and Estes, I'd love to meet some of them there too!

Kyle=
Kyle S. MacLea
Clan Society Life Member; DNA Project Co-Admin
New Hampshire, USA
kyle -dot- maclea -at- gmail -dot- com
Greg Livingston
Posts: 308
Joined: Wed Jul 22, 2009 11:42 pm
Location: Ankeny, IA, USA

Re: Elizabeth Colorado Celtic Festival

Post by Greg Livingston »

For any of you that enjoy the heat this would have been among the best festivals to attend. Denver area temperatures were 102F on Saturday and at least 96F on Sunday. However, at Elizabeth it was up to 10 degrees cooler. The breeze we had on Saturday kept me from becoming totally roasted and the cloud cover on Sunday was a great relief.

Saturday I arrived shortly after 7:00AM to start setting up. Since the canopy we use take 2 people I was happy to have the representatives of Clan Robertson show up about the time I got back to my position after unloading and moving the truck. They had set up the night before and were camping there. With their assistance the canopy was set up and then I laid out the rest of our materials.

The couple from Robertson talked with me while we were both finishing our set up and were happy to hear that a new clan was joining in there and other festivals in Colorado. They were very willing to share ideas and ways to improve our display as were all of the clans that I talked with over the weekend so I ended up with many ideas, suggestions and welcomes. Most of the clans represented at this festival use it as I was which is to "shake out the bugs" from the last year, renew or make new friendships with other clans, and just plain practice for the two major gatherings coming up in the next two months. Everyone I talked to said the same thing, don't expect to gain any new members. More on that later.

One of the things I was happy I did before heading out was to fill my flask with some single malt and the cooler with 3 plus liters of water. Every time I visited with a different clan and they learned we were new, out came their single malt for a wee toast. When this would happen everyone would pour a toast from their flask/bottle for someone else standing there. No one drank their own for the first round. And no, this didn't start after lunch, the first toast I received was from the Robertsons at 8 AM :shock: Their excuse was that it was after noon........... in Scotland. I am most happy that I had so much water there to dilute all the welcomes I received during the day and that I knew I was heading home that evening with a drive of over and hour. Gave me a great excuse to keep my wits about me. :lol:

The tent location was great. I was underneath a tree with the back of the tent to the heavy athletics. During slow periods I could turn around and watch the action. In the mornings there was plenty of early shade with a little sun about 10 -11 AM. Noon the tree shaded me and sun came back about 1 PM. By 3:30 the shade from across the way was starting to cool me back down. Many tents had sides to block the sun but they also blocked the breeze. I felt that it was worth having a small area/tent with no sides for this festival since with the breeze I seemed to stay cooler than the Robertsons next door and the Campbells next to them.

There are a number of competitions between the clans at the festivals in Colorado with more being planned. First is to actively engage children in the fun. This was started by the Scottish American Military Society (SAMS) and involves what is called the passport to the clans. The passport is a small booklet with blank pages that children up to age 12 bring by each tent where they get a stamp of the clansman badge. The idea is for them to learn something at each clan and collect as many stamps as they can before turning the passport back in to SAMS and winning a prize. They will also receive something from each clan like beads or candy. The next competition is where each clan votes for the best/friendlyest clan tent. The final is best at the parade. The new competition this year is starting at Highlands Ranch where each clan will have a stuffed sheep with their tartan on it. The idea is to protect your sheep while stealing as many others as you can. Points will be awarded for each successful raid and for protecting your own. The originator of this will be sending out an email with the rules after getting them all written down.

Well, so much for the social aspect of the weekend, it's time to get down to business. I did find and "steal" some great ideas for our tent. I have pictures of most of these that will be posted in the gallery. One of the primary things will be to actually have a small but excellent library. Books that will be needed include one on tartans and one on clan names. The clan name book would have an index of what clan a name would be associated with. We know ours but most of us don't know the names associated with Robertson for example. By having a book like this we would be able to direct people to the correct clan tent and allows others to direct people to ours. At the same time with the tartan book we can show them the appropriate tartan for that clan. Each of us that convenes a tent will need to collect their own items and as we find something that works for us share it with the others so they may either get the same thing or something similar if they wish. If you are not one of the volunteers at a tent but know or have something that would be good, please share it with us. If you know where we can find another one, please share that also.

I had made up a simple business card to hand out to potential members and to share with other clans. It was practically a last minute thought and I'm glad I did. I shared with several of the clans and was given cards back. This will put us on their mailing list for their local activities and has already lead to an invitation to a Burns Dinner where they have said "as many as possible" may come. I will be refining and sharing the format I used so that we may all have cards at the tent. This is a great way to network and build clan relationships.

Remember earlier I had indicated that this was just basically a practice run? Well, it ended up more than just that. Early on Sunday as I was talking with the people at the asdgasfh clan tent. They had recently moved to Colorado from Northern California and let me know that there is another group of Livingston(e)s in Northern California that have been going to festivals there with a clan tent. They are going to talk with some friends of theirs that are still there and have them contact that group at the Pleasanton games to get us together. Another great use for the card. This should give us a very quick boost in the membership. I will also be contacting the management of those games to see if they will put me directly in touch with them.

The next good piece of news was that a couple was standing in front but in between the Robertson tent and ours with some big grins. It turns out that Rex is a Robertson and Vennessa is a Livingston on her mothers side. They purchased clan booklets from both clans and picked up membership forms for both with the intention of sending them in quickly. Not bad for a first festival.

That basically covers everything. Oh, did I mention the HEAT!???!!?

I do want to mention to all of my volunteers to recognize what the weather is likely to be at any festival you attend, whether as a general intrest in what happens or if you are there to participate in the clan tent. Be prepared and take pleanty of water and sun screen for the hot days, rain gear if any possiblity of rain or jackets for the cold. Also, with all the clan to clan and individual to individual toasting that is going on, be safe about any drinking while there. If you are alone it is best to camp there on the grounds, arrange other transportation or drastically limit yourself to stay out of trouble. We will still need you for the tent next year or another later the same year and we don't want to be know as the clan that always has too much to drink. Besides, these are always family functions and you need to remember that children are always present and learn best by example.

Now, go look at the pictures in the gallery (if I have them post-processed yet) and let me know if you have ideas we can use.
Greg Livingston
Clan Commissioner
Northglenn, Colorado, USA
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Kyle MacLea
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Re: Elizabeth Colorado Celtic Festival

Post by Kyle MacLea »

Bravo, Greg! I will have more comments later, but for now, I just wanted to say THANKS and I set up a "Clan Events" category for the Gallery for you to use. You can set up individual albums within that category for each games if you like, or ask me.

I do have at least one clan/tartan book I can bring to the next two games, although it's not a great one.

I'm working on the clan stamp as well!

Kyle=
Kyle S. MacLea
Clan Society Life Member; DNA Project Co-Admin
New Hampshire, USA
kyle -dot- maclea -at- gmail -dot- com
Greg Livingston
Posts: 308
Joined: Wed Jul 22, 2009 11:42 pm
Location: Ankeny, IA, USA

Re: Elizabeth Colorado Celtic Festival

Post by Greg Livingston »

I've added pictures to my gallery. For some reason the gallery Kyle set up for me was not one of the options on where I could post them. Enjoy and get some ideas for your tent.
Greg Livingston
Clan Commissioner
Northglenn, Colorado, USA
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Kyle MacLea
Posts: 1043
Joined: Fri Jul 17, 2009 1:54 am
Location: New Hampshire, USA
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Re: Elizabeth Colorado Celtic Festival

Post by Kyle MacLea »

Here's the link to Greg's pictures from the Elizabeth Festival:

http://www.clanlivingstone.info/copperm ... p?album=17

Kyle=
Kyle S. MacLea
Clan Society Life Member; DNA Project Co-Admin
New Hampshire, USA
kyle -dot- maclea -at- gmail -dot- com
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