A scene from a previous year’s Glasgow Lands Scottish Festival.
Reminder Publishing submitted photos
NORTHAMPTON — The Glasgow Lands Scottish Festival will celebrate its 30th anniversary on Saturday, July 19, at Look Park in Northampton.
The Glasgow Lands Scottish Festival is the only Scottish festival in the state and the second-largest in New England. Showcasing Scottish culture and arts to the Pioneer Valley for three decades, the festival has become a popular celebration.
“I think it’s marvelous that we’ve reached 30 years. We have a little tiny committee, about 10 people attend every meeting once a month. It’s a very small group that are extremely actively involved,” said Laurie Flechsig, member of the festival’s committee.
The 2025 festival promises to be extra special according to Flechsig, as incredible pipe bands, entertainment, food and more will be coming to Northampton, along with a few other additional surprises in what is gearing up to be one of the most jam-packed days in the festival’s history.
The day will begin at 9 a.m. and go until 8:30 p.m., with closing ceremonies beginning at 5:30 p.m. Entertainment in the Celtic Pub will follow until 8:30 p.m. The event is rain or shine and dogs on leashes are allowed in attendance. Parking is free on the Look Park grounds.
Admission and Whisky Tasting tickets are available now or attendees can pay at the gate. For tickets and more information on this year’s festival, visit glasgowlands.org.
The public is encouraged to come out and celebrate your Scottish heritage — real or coveted — with kilt-wearing, tree-tossing Scotsmen at the Highland athletic games and delight in plates piled high with scones, shortbread, birdies or meat pies. The festival also includes world class Celtic music in the Ceilidh tent all day, featuring artists The Devil’s Brigade, Albannach and Waking Finnegan.
The event started in 1994 planned to be a one-time event to fundraise for the historic White Church in Blandford. After success in year one, the event continued on, eventually moving locations from Blandford to Stanley Park in Westfield, before finding its permanent home at Look Park for the last 20 years.
“Blandford itself was originally known as Glasgow Land, which is where we get our name. They had a bunch of Scottish settlers,” said Flechsig. “It’s a celebration of the culture at large.”
She added the original founding committee of the event featured members with backgrounds in the Scottish arts as there were multiple pipers and dancers involved. The spirit of the founders wanting to celebrate their culture has last three decades later now, with many still returning each year for festivities within the Scottish culture.
Organizers expect to have close to 40 pipe bands competing this year with 700-800 pipers and drummers on the field at opening and closing ceremonies. As a result, organizers expect there could be a delay for those entering the park in time for the 11:30 a.m. opening ceremonies. Because of this, organizers ask attendees to plan accordingly and allow for extra time.
New at the festival in 2025 is the Inaugural Northeast Branch Amateur Drumming Championships. The event will be hosted by Glasgow Lands as part of their Pipe and Drum Competition, featuring all grade levels of amateur snare, tenor and bass drumming.
“It’s a pretty cool thing to tie it in with the Scottish arts angle,” Flechsig said. “We hear from people that they love our festival. We’re not the highest paid as far as the bands and the competitions in general go, but people love to come here because of the setting, the committee and the fact that we’ve done such a good job over the years.”
Also new this year is mead and wine at Celtic Pub. For the first time, the festival will be selling a selection of wine and mead from Four Phantoms Brewing Company from Greenfield.
There will also be a new event called “Saving Scottish Wildcats,” where attendees can learn about the project in the clan/vendor area of the festival. This is a project of the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland.
One returning act this year is the Massachusetts Historical Swordsmanship event, hosted by Northampton’s local Historical European Martial Arts group. The group practices forms including stick, two-handed sword and rapier, many of which have a Scottish connection.
Another returning act will be the Doug Flutie Jr. Foundation for Autism, which will sing the national anthem at opening ceremonies. The honored guest of this year’s festival is state Rep. Lindsay Sabadosa.
Funds raised during the event will go to support River Valley Counseling and the Forum House, a service of ViAbility, Inc. River Valley Counseling has become a partner of the festival as they are a source for volunteers each year for the event.
The mission of Forum House, the other local organization supported by funds raised at Glasgow Lands, is to promote the recovery, resiliency and self-determination of the individuals they serve and empower them to become self-sufficient and engaged citizens. Through the use of evidence-based practices, members help gain access to competitive employment, educational opportunities and community resources.
“We love being able to give them funding like we have in the past,” said Flechsig. “Forum House has received $131,000 from us over the 15-20 years they’ve been helping us now.”
Flechsig added this partnership is another example of the festival’s growth within the Western Mass. community over the years, as without community partners and sponsors to support the festival like this, it might not exist anymore. The festival also has a highland dance, piper and drummer scholarship application that they use to support local students in the region.
Flechsig said she hopes for another great day of celebrating Scottish culture and arts in a year with added significance with the events history.
“It’s definitely great to be able to still be here after 30 years because it’s kind of a wishy-washy business. It’s great to be able to say we’re still here after 30 years and we haven’t lost our shirts yet. We’re still hanging in there and still being able to donate money elsewhere,” Flechsig concluded.
