Eugene Scottish Festival brings heritage, Highland games and haggis contest

Bagpipes, Highland games and a dog parade gave the Eugene Scottish Festival its biggest visual pull at Irving Grange in Santa Clara, where the 23-year-old event filled 1011 Irvington Dr. with music, food and heritage programming from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday. General admission was listed at $8, seniors 60 and older paid $5, families of up to five paid $25 and children 12 and under were free.

The lineup leaned hard into live performance. The 2026 schedule included the Katie Jane Band, Possibly Irish, the Glensiders, D’n’A, Cucunandy and Kitchen Cèilidh, along with the Eugene Highlanders pipe and drum band and solo piper Heidi the Lone Piper. Dance hall Cèilidh and Country dancers added another layer of pageantry, and the tea room paired harp and fiddle music from Linda Danielson and Janet Naylor with a quieter place to linger between sets. The festival billed itself as “a bit of Scotland in the South Willamette Valley,” and its official message was simple: “everyone is welcome,” with kilts optional.

The festival’s most distinctive new attraction was its first haggis-eating contest, a playful twist that sat alongside more familiar traditions. Clan tents gave attendees a chance to trace Scottish ancestry, making the event as much a genealogy stop as a performance day. Organizers have said the festival exists to help people connect with Scottish roots while still welcoming anyone who simply wanted a low-pressure family outing, and the mix of music, dancing, demonstrations and the dog parade kept that promise front and center.

The event also showed why it has lasted for more than two decades in Eugene. GuideStar lists Eugene Scottish Festival as a cultural and ethnic awareness nonprofit, and the volunteer page describes it as a 23-year-old festival supported by volunteers. That history showed in the way the grounds worked like a neighborhood fair: children had room to roam, adults moved between the stage, clan areas and food tents, and the royal court, headed by Queen Mary of Scots, added a pageant-like flourish.

Practical details made the outing easier for Lane County families. Parking cost $5 per vehicle and was managed as a fundraiser by the North Eugene High School Girls Tennis Team. LTD Bus Route 52 stopped directly in front of Irving Grange, a useful option for anyone trying to avoid the lot. The festival also noted that 2026 was closed to new vendors and that organizers expect to move to a larger venue in the future, a sign that the longtime gathering may outgrow the Santa Clara site that has carried it this far.