Melbourne Highland Games and Celtic Festival 2024

Anne Harvey, member of Melbourne and District Branch tells us all about the SCD stall at Melbourne Highland Games and Celtic Festival

On 24th March 2024, our day began at 8.00am for set up of the Ringwood Caledonian Societies stall to promote Scottish Country Dancing.

We approached the day with a clear intention to converse, display and recruit!

Our set up included a history display giving some background to how Scottish Country Dancing all began, 'Pin the tail on the Heilan Coo' which was very popular with the children, and some tables for children to enjoy colouring in of Scottish animals, and pictures using the wonderful resources on the RSCDS website.  If you haven't had a good look through the website, I would encourage you to do so. 

My grateful thanks goes to Alan and Lyndsay at RSCDS HQ for their incredible help with information and resources, also their quick responses on email. 

We made up some A1 Corflute (plastic corrugated cardboard) display boards using the poster template available on the RSCDS website giving a basic explanation of what SCD is, formations and foot work used in the dances, what to wear, benefits of SCD and encouragement to come along. 

Our members handed out a flyer for a "Come and Try" evening and engaged people in conversations about SCD in general. It was a great day!

Alongside our teacher Sarah, members from our club performed display dances. We danced 2 brackets, one around 10am, and the other around 2pm.  They wowed the crowd with Pelorus Jack, McDonald of Keppoch and Scott Meikle.  Sarah encouraged members of the crowd to join in and have a go at some easier dancers, and this was met with much enthusiasm.

The games were held on Sunday 24th March, and on Wednesday 27th March we held our 'Come and Try' night.  We are a club of about 20 + dancers, this increased to 40 when all those who were interested arrived.  It was an exciting and busy evening!

Hopefully, they all enjoy the 'fun, fitness and friendship' that SCD has to offer and will keep coming.