The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Games face £25m hammer blow to the 2020 season
Covid-19 wipeout of Scotland’s Highland events would severely damage economy
Scotland’s Highland Games season could be facing the prospect of a coronavirus wipeout in a £25 million blow to Scotland’s economy.
With the scheduled start of the season just eight weeks away, a number of local events have already been cancelled or postponed and organisers fear Scottish Government advice relating to large scale gatherings could place the entire summer programme under threat.
Yesterday it was announced this year’s Royal Highland Show, Scotland’s largest outdoor event, will not go ahead.
Royal Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland (RHASS) directors held a virtual meeting and agreed to cancel the Edinburgh show, which attracts around 20,000 people, in line with government guidance on large gatherings.
RHASS chairman, Bill Gray, said: “Plans for the 180th Show are at an advanced stage but given recent and ongoing developments, the directors and I have taken the only course of action open to us.”
He said all tickets will be refunded and more details given to exhibitors and sponsors in coming weeks.
It comes as Highland Games across Tayside and Fife have been cancelled.
Cupar’s event will not now go ahead on June 21, nor Markinch on June 7.
Ceres, the oldest free games in
Scotland and held in the village at the end of June since 1314, have also been cancelled while the Fife village of Cardenden has also postponed what would have been its first games for 68 years.
The resurrected Bowhill Highland Games to be held on May 17 have been rescheduled to September 13.
Fife councillor Linda Erksine said: “Hopefully the serious health threat which is hanging over us at this point in time will be, by September, just a bad memory and we will have a great day to celebrate and remember.”
Scottish Highland Games Association officials met via conference call on Sunday, rather than converging on Perth as planned, to discuss an agenda dominated by the Covid-19 outbreak.
Association vice-president Charlie Murray, who is also chairman of the Strathmore Games held at Glamis Castle, said they would be supporting member games in following government advice and liaising with other sports bodies during the “unprecedented” situation.
Newcomer Gourock Games on May 10 is scheduled to be the season opener this year ahead of the traditional curtain-raiser at Blackford in Perthshire on May 30, which is celebrating its 150th anniversary. Organisers there are understood to be looking at a contingency date in August.