The Games at the End of the Train.
That's the slogan Coquitlam special events organizer Mike Chisholm has had up his sleeve for the past couple of years to promote the BC Highland Games and Scottish Festival.
But it's only been this year — since the Evergreen Extension opened last December with its final stop at Lafarge Lake-Douglas, a seven-minute walk from Percy Perry Field where the annual celebration will happen on Saturday — that the tag line has kicked into gear.
SkyTrain is a big boon to the Games, which is expected to draw up to 10,000 visitors to Coquitlam Town Centre Park between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. on June 17.
Since Evergreen opened, Chisholm and volunteers have pushed hard to promote the Games around Metro Vancouver: For example, handing out marketing cards at such events as CelticFest Vancouver in March; SkyTrain is featured prominently on the Games website, too.
"We want to entice people out here," said Chisholm, who is in his second year as the Games' board chair. "Coquitlam is not that far from Vancouver and we want to show people who have been reluctant to head out this way what's going on."
And what's happening is a bevy of competition — heavy events; pipes, drums and bands; and highland dancing — as well as whisky tasting, cultural displays and workshops and other entertainment.
This year, the beer garden will be nearly five times the size and will move to the east side of the field, by the Highland Village — a zone that includes four tents. It will have its own stage for performers as well.
Rob MacBeth of CKPM FM 98.7 The Point is also charged with programming entertainment on the main stage as well as the north gazebo, Chisholm said.
Among the Games' highlights will be a collaborative performance by the Shot of Scotch highland dancers and the Royal Academy of Bhangra dancers — a multicultural show funded by the BC Arts Council, happening on the main track at 2:35 p.m.
The Vancouver Ladies Pipe Band, which folded in the 1990s, will also be recognized at its 90th reunion while the massed pipe bands will gather at 4:30 p.m. for the grande finale — prior to the Grades 1 and 2 pipe band contest.
Chisholm said more vendors and clan societies will also be represented this year; there will be be a quidditch demonstration match (as featured in The Tri-City News last week) and a ceilidh in the beer garden from 6 to 8 p.m.
Chisholm's said last year's downpour put a financial damper on the Games; however, on Monday, the organizing committee got a boost when Coquitlam city council awarded more than $10,000 via a Spirit Grant and another $11,795 for next year's event.
"We continue to expand and build on the games each year," Chisholm said.
• Tickets for the BC Highland Games and Scottish Festival on Saturday are $15/$10/$5 (no cost for kids under six). The whisky school admission is an additional $25. Commuters can park their vehicles at Douglas College and catch the shuttle to the stadium. Visit bchighlandgames.com.
