The festival starts with the 7:30 p.m. Thursday Tattoo. The field is open Friday, Saturday and Sunday from 9 a.m. until 5 p.m. The parade is Saturday morning at 9:30 on Elkhorn Avenue. Evening activities Friday and Saturday at 7:30 are: the Colorado Celtic Rock Concert, the Folk Concert, and new this year, the Longs Peak Concert, Estes Tattoo, and starting at 10:00 p.m, the Ceilidh to pick up after the other events end and the celebrating continues into the wee hours of the next morning. Sunday morning, the Pancake Breakfast, where you can dine with the Jousters and Athletes, will begin at 7 a.m until 9:30 a.m. Sunday evening marks the end of the festival with the Honored Guest Banquet, a superb meal complete with dress kilts, suits, evening dress attire for the ladies, a cash bar and live entertainment beginning with cocktails at 7:00 pm and dinner at 7:30 p.m.

PARADE STARTS AT 9:30 AM SATURDAY, SEPT 12. It starts at the west end of the main street (Elkhorn Ave) and continues to the Visitor's Center just past the Hwy 34/36 intersection. There are shuttle busses that will take people from the Festival Field to the Municiple Bldg on Elkhorn Ave for the parade, starting at 8 am on Saturday. They will make a loop all day Saturday and Sunday from downtown to the Festival Field and will stop at 6 pm both days.

It is said that big oaks from little acorns grow. A truer word was never spoken when one reviews the tiny start of four families sharing a picnic and an ethnic background in Bond Park, and then views the Estes Park Scottish/Irish Highland Festival scene at the Stanley Fairgrounds thirty years later!

There will be pipers piping and drummers drumming, kilts and plumed bonnets, brave steeds bearing medieval jousters in combat, caber, stone and hammer throwing athletes.

You'll hear international and world famous singers and entertainers for free on the field and watch the "creme de la creme" of young dancers executing the Highland, Folk and Irish dances of their heritage. The dogs indigenous to the British Isles will win your hearts and tempt you to add a "family member". Fine merchants and talented crafters with exotic Celtic merchandise, beautiful clothing, exquisite jewelry, fascinating heraldry histories, and art in all its many guises will satisfy the most ardent souvenir collector. Add the clans with their gorgeous tartan displays, hospitality tents and joyous reunions, and you cannot but feel welcome and happy.

Hungry, are you? Then the Festival is a haven of the familiar American foods and Celtic specialties-turkey legs, hamburgers, ice cream, Scotch, beer, haggis, meat pies, funnel cakes and much, much more!

Come to Estes Park for the Festival. Renew your spirits, dance to the pipes, and hear the cannons roar.