The Porch: Scotfest Is Back In Broken Arrow This Weekend

This weekend, Green Country can experience an authentic celebration of Scottish, Irish and Celtic culture.

ScotFest is at a new location this year, the Central Park Community Center in Broken Arrow. The gates are open Friday from 5:00 to 11:00, but the fun will last all weekend. The food trucks are set up, and vendors are ready for crowds. But it's the Highland Games that help set ScotFest apart from other festivals, and athletes want fans to participate.

“We love it when the crowd goes wild. It's such a good hype for the crowd to encourage us,” Erin Monks said.

Native Tulsan Erin Monks is here from Florida to compete. The sport has taken her all over the world, including to Norway. While ScotFest has been around Tulsa for more than 40 years, the Highland Games have been around for hundreds.

“Very old, and it was a way that originally the farmers were training themselves for battle because their weapons were taken away. So this is how they trained for it, and we have just kept it going now as a sport,” Monks said.

Monks said that with competitors coming in from places like the Netherlands and Germany, ScotFest helps put Broken Arrow on the map.

"This actually is, in the U.S., one of the biggest ones,” Monks said. “And again, music, food, the people who come to compete, it's very unique for all those reasons."

There is also a bagpipe competition at ScotFest. That happens on Saturday morning.

Scotfest 2024 will begin Friday, Sept. 13 at 5 p.m. and go until 11 p.m.

It will be open again Saturday, Sept. 14 from 9 a.m. to 11 p.m., and Sunday, Sept. 15 from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Tickets are available here.