{"id":25445,"date":"2024-10-06T20:30:28","date_gmt":"2024-10-07T02:30:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/aztec-hosts-big-crowd-for-annual-celtic-games-and-festival\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T05:17:32","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T05:17:32","slug":"aztec-hosts-big-crowd-for-annual-celtic-games-and-festival","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/aztec-hosts-big-crowd-for-annual-celtic-games-and-festival\/","title":{"rendered":"Aztec hosts big crowd for annual Celtic Games and Festival"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Opening
Opening ceremonies for the annual Celtic Games and Festival in Aztec this weekend.
\nBrad Ryan\/Special to the Tri-City Record<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a sound like no other. Unmistakable in its origin.<\/p>\n

The bagpipes were playing Saturday and Sunday under bonny blues skies in Aztec throughout the 14th annual Celtic Games and Festival.<\/p>\n

For two days, Riverside Park was magically transformed into the Scottish Highlands as burly men and strong women competed in a number of feats of strength and endurance. Younger girls and women also competed in Highland dance.<\/p>\n

The athletes and dancers were competing in officially sanctioned events. According to Rhonda Huntington, city of Aztec events planner, this is an opportunity for those competing to add to their scores. When their scores are high enough, they are eligible to compete in the national Celtic games; winners at nationals can then go on to world championships.<\/p>\n

\"A
A woman competes in the Braemer Stone competiton at the Annual Celtic Games and Festival in Aztec this weekend.
\nBrad Ryan\/Special to the Tri-City Record)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"A
A man competes in the Braemer Stone competiton at the Annual Celtic Games and Festival in Aztec this weekend.
\nBrad Ryan\/Special to the Tri-City Record)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Before the Celtic Games and Festival began in Aztec, a number of people on the board of the nonprofit Aztec Highland Games traveled to Scotland to experience some festivals firsthand, then came back and recreated it among the cottonwoods along the Animas River, Huntington said.<\/p>\n

Attending one of the first events held in Aztec a dozen or so years ago was Charles Thacker of Bloomfield, competing this year in the hammer throw.\u201cThey take this hammer, which is a heavy weight at the end of a 4-foot handle, and they spin it around their head while facing backward to the field, then they will release the hammer over their shoulder, out into the field as far they possibly can,\u201d Thacker said.<\/p>\n

When he saw the competition at the first event he attended, he thought to himself that it looked like a lot of fun.<\/p>\n

\u201cI did one hammer throw during a little practice, and I was like \u2018OK, this is it, I want to do this.\u2019 It\u2019s the best thing ever,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"Kailey
Kailey MacDonald as Mary Queen Of Scotts and Matthew Harvey as Prince Otto the Magnificent of Germany at the annual Celtic Games and Festival in Aztec this weekend.
\nBrad Ryan\/Special to the Tri-City Record<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Costumed
Costumed participants mingle with spectators this weekend at the annual Celtic Games and Festival in Aztec. Brad Ryan\/Special to the Tri-City record<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Nicholas Hall of Santa Fe and his wife were both competing this year. Asked what drew them to the sport, he replied, \u201cWell to be honest with you I saw it on TV and I said \u2018Those guys are built like me, I can throw like them, so I decided to do it.\u201d When asked what he likes about participating, he had a ready answer. \u201cThe camaraderie. I like the sportsmanship. Everybody seems to just be out here to have a good time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another husband-and-wife duo were Jack and Donna Thompson, both 81, from Tijeras. Competing for a dozen years, they got into the sport through their son. They compete in all nine required events, with three tries for each event.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe endurance is my goal, to make it through,\u201d Donna said. She echoed that she, too, really enjoys the camaraderie.<\/p>\n

The nine required events include, in traditional order: Braemar, Open Stone, Heavy Weight for Distance, Light Weight for Distance, Heavy Scottish Hammer, Light Scottish Hammer, Caber Toss, Weight Over Bar, and Sheaf Toss.<\/p>\n

This year Aztec was hosting the national women\u2019s lightweight (14 pounds) championship, bringing women from throughout the country, including New York, Texas, Utah, California and other states. \u201cThey are the top, the cream of the crop in the nation,\u201d Huntington said.<\/p>\n

Alisha Donner from Keenes, IL, was competing and on Saturday set a world record in the Braemar Stone event, throwing a 13-18 pound stone 36 feet, 3.5 inches.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is my second season, I am still new. This is just the beginning for me, so that\u2019s exciting,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

For her, like the others, it\u2019s about more than throwing heavy things far. \u201cI love the people. Of course, being able to throw the numbers I do is really cool, but this is my family. It doesn\u2019t matter if you go across the nation, everyone is welcoming, everyone wants to see you win, on and off the field. It\u2019s phenomenal, they are my people,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

She also was competing in all nine required events.<\/p>\n

\u201cHaving nine events and at least three throws in every event, by the end of the day you are exhausted. This is a higher altitude here, so I am panting already,\u201d she said with a smile.<\/p>\n

If watching all these strong athletes left you feeling a little weak, also taking place was the Highland Dance competition, another officially sanctioned event. There were booths devoted to various Scottish clans that came to the festival and vendors selling all types of goods. Need some bagpipe accessories? You could find it there.<\/p>\n

In addition to traditional bagpipe music, there were also six different bands performing Scottish music, including headliners The Badly Bent. The Red Desert Muse Belly Dancers also performed. Not strictly Scottish, performer Melissa Salyers of Farmington said the Romany people were associated with the British Traveler Culture, with the British influence traveling into Scotland. \u201cIt\u2019s not exactly Scottish, but Scottish adjacent,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

There were activities festival attendees not into the athletics could participate in, including ax throwing and a competition for the best mock romance novel cover.<\/p>\n

Past Aztec Highland Games and Festival have attracted over 2,000 attendees. This year, with increased advertising and social media, along with the fine weather, Huntington was hoping to best that record.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Athletes and dancers compete in sanctioned events<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":25446,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-25445","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25445","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25445"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25445\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":78940,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25445\/revisions\/78940"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25446"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25445"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25445"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25445"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=25445"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}