The Highland Games at St Andrews, Scotland

Highland Games festivals are popular in North America, where many people of Scottish descent live. But they're even more popular in their home country of Scotland. There's a boisterous simplicity to them that shows how even the most dour of Scots can forget their troubles for an afternoon and throw a really good party.

The St Andrews Highland Games always come on the last Sunday in July (July 25 this year) and they always take place in a field in North Haugh, on the northwest edge of town. People come from all over Fife to see them, even though they are only one of a whole series of Highland Games in the area and Fife is technically the Lowlands not the Highlands. The hours generally run from 11am to 5pm, though some competitions start earlier than 11 and people may linger later than 5.

At their heart, the Highland Games focus on a series of contests of skill, strength, speed and endurance. The layout is centered on a grassy field where the contests occur. These include foot races, bicycle races and more exotic sports like caber tossing. For those who don't know what a caber is, it's a very long log that you have to pick up by one end, balance vertically and toss as far as you can. It's a bit like javelin-throwing for the Flintstones.

There are two other major competitions-bagpipes and Highland dancing. The bagpipes judges are set up in the southwestern corner of the field in the shade of the trees. Young pipers enter the ring and stand before the judges. They first run through scales and then perform a piece that they have practiced. Pipes take a bit of warming up, so you can always hear someone tuning or practicing under the trees before his exam.

The Highland dancing occurs on an elevated wooden stage. Young girls in various age classes dance the same choreographed Highland flings as a group. In conservative Scotland, pipers are usually boys and dancers are usually girls, but this is slowly changing.

Both the dancers and the pipers wear colorful Highland tartan outfits based on their clan affiliation. It is a major social faux pas to wear a clan tartan that is not your own, since tartan is socially recognized formal wear in Scotland, particularly for men. Scottish men wear kilts to functions (like weddings and funerals) that would require black tie. Both Highland and Lowland clans now have tartan (though it originally began as a Highland custom).

The Scots take their tartan and clan affiliations extremely seriously, more so than outsiders might realize. Some Campbells and MacDonalds, for example, still do not speak to each other three and a half centuries after the massacre at Glencoe. Further, if you go to the Rob Roy Visitor's Center in Callander, you may notice that in the well-stocked gift shop, including many items in a variety of tartans, anything related to the Campbells will be conspicuously absent.

Around the competition field and inside the piping and dancing competitions runs a horseshoe of booths. These include a variety of Scottish-themed food and drink, crafts, clothing and local music for sale. There is, of course, the obligatory beer tent, this being a summer fair and in Britain. But this being Scotland, you'll also find a booth selling single-malt and blended whiskey and whisky liqueurs, with enough free samples to get a non-alcoholic pleasantly buzzed. You can also find whisky fudge, hard candies, smoked fish on an open fire, ice cream and the usual chips and whatever.

Prices are decent and you can get in for free after 3pm. Even though people come from all over the world, the Games are set up with locals in mind. Since the Scottish economy is in lousy shape, a lot of people can't and won't pay much for a day's outing.

So, if you ever get a chance to be in St Andrews on the last Sunday of July, head on over to the Highland Games and check it out.