Highland Games set for Cedar Glades Park in September
Heavy objects will be flying through the air at Cedar Glades Park in September when the Hot Springs Renaissance Faire hosts the Ouachita Highland Games.
Two-time Scottish Highland Games Masters World Champion Stacy Green pitched the idea of holding a Highland Games at the Hot Springs Renaissance Faire this year, which eventually led to the games becoming a separate event to be held on Saturday, Sept. 25.
Admission to the games will be $5. Green, who won the 2018 and 2019 Masters World Championship in the Men’s 50-plus, 200-pound Class, recently moved to Hot Springs from Texas.
Travis Gates, creator and owner of the Hot Springs Renaissance Faire, said Green reached out to him and said, “‘Hey, I want to do this and can you guys get some support and help on that?’ and we were like ‘Sure.’”
“I just moved up here just over a year ago from Texas, North Texas, and so I’m really plugged into the Highland Games, and I wanted to bring that to Hot Springs,” Green said, noting this will be the second games in the state after one in Batesville.
Gates said the plan originally called for the games to be part of the Faire,
which is set for November, but “it grew to the point where we had to separate it. We’re very excited about that to have another family filled historical event inside Hot Springs.”
The competition will feature nine events that will be held simultaneously, Green said, “so when spectators come out, they can look across the field and see hammer throwing, they can look over here and see the stone-throwing, the Caber Toss, which a lot of people identify with — it’s where you’re flipping the tree.”
There will be numerous classes at the event, and Green said there will also be female competitors.
Between 60 and 70 competitors are expected to participate. “I’ve got a lot of friends and competitors from Texas and Oklahoma and most of them are coming up here,” Green said, noting they will “have some world champs here” and some world record holders.
“We’ve got a really good group of competitors signed up,” he said.
Green started competing in this sport “right at four years” ago, he said.
“My son was in Boy Scouts. They had a Highland Gamesthemed campout. You could try some of the events. We got to do it, as adults too, and I liked it. I used to do powerlifting and Strongman a long time ago, and so it just appealed to me to try it,” he said.
“We had a local game in Sherman, Texas. I was getting ready to turn 50 and I saw they had a 50+ class and I thought ‘Why not?’ and I got hooked on it,” Green said.
“I’m impressed with it,” Gates said, noting he has watched videos of competitors and is looking forward to the event.
“I’ve always been impressed with them picking up a log — any man or woman that picks up a log and throws it like that, hey they’ve got my respect,” he said.
As with the Faire, the games will also feature live entertainment, and vendors will be set up.
“We are going to have live music up there, there will be bagpipes,” Gates said, and Mary, Queen of Scots, will be in attendance both days.
“At the Scottish Games, we’re going to have people selling kilts there, and you guys, if you’ve never worn a kilt — women too — if you’ve never worn a kilt, you should. They’re very Gates said.
Another thing going on at the event is a gathering of redheads. “Hopefully we’ll get a good number — it’s not going to be like some Guinness World Book number but … something we’re calling ‘The Great Gathering of Gingers,’” he said.
“What ‘The Great Gathering of Gingers’ actually is, is we’re inviting every redhead that we possibly can find to actually come out there to Cedar Glades Park to be in our gathering of redhead pictures,” Gates said.
The second day of the event will feature competitions, while the first day will have more stuff for the general public to do.
“We’re having a free clinic Friday evening out there, and that’s just for the general public to try out the events. If they look at that hammer and say ‘Hey, I’d like to try that,’ then we show you how to do it, you can try it,” Green said.
Green said there will also be two food trucks in attendance for the event and encouraged spectators to bring their own chairs. “We’re going to have a very limited supply of bleachers,” he said.
Gates said this will be an annual event moving forward. freeing,”