For 85-year-old Janey Tivy, the 72nd Victoria Highland Games and Celtic Festival means more than bagpipes, tartan kilts and the haggis hurl. The event was about sharing her Scottish roots with her daughter, granddaughter and great-granddaughter, four generations of Scottish women soaking in the culture that poured through Topaz Park Sunday.
Tivy first attended the Highland Games in 1943, a year after she moved to Victoria from Greenock, Scotland. "I've been taking [family members] since they were that size," she said, pointing to her four-year-old great-granddaughter, Miya Cantelon.
The four attended the opening ceremonies for the Games, which ran Saturday and Sunday. They listened to the dozens of bagpipes and the patter of drums coming from the Greater Victoria Police Pipe Band as they paraded onto the fairgrounds and the watched the pointed toes of the mass dancers doing the Highland Fling.
"We come for mom," said Tivy's daughter, 59-year-old Beau Buckler, "but when you hear the bagpipes and it's part of your heritage, it makes you feel really good."
Miya said her favourite part was the dancing competition.
"I'm glad she gets to see the girls in kilts and the dancers," said Miya's mom, Lisa Owen, 33.
Throughout the weekend, spectators watched sheep-dog trials, hurled frozen bags of haggis while standing on half a whisky barrel, and watched the heavy events like the hammer toss and the caber toss.
Crowds gathered on the bleachers to witness burly men in kilts try to turn the caber -- a pole, sometimes as long as six metres and as heavy as 75 kilograms. Competitors try to flip it end-over-end.
Breanne Odden was one of the few women preparing for this feat of strength Sunday. The petite yet sculpted 26-year-old from Kelso, Wash., said that while she always loved coming to Victoria for the Games, she grew tired of merely watching her husband, John, compete for Team U.S.A.
"There's not as many women who do it as men," said Odden, wearing a bright yellow kilt and knee socks. "I think it's really cool that everyone comes together and celebrates like athletes, dancers and musicians."
The first Victoria Highland Games took place in 1864, which makes this "the longest cultural event in the region," said Jim Maxwell, president of the Victoria Highland Games Association.
