Super Saturday

If you can’t find something to do, you’re not looking very hard

The Gresham Outlook, Jul 12, 2008, Updated Oct 30, 2009

Lining up to toss the Open Stone is Sam Ayres from Tualatin who competed in a previous Highland Games at Mt. Hood Community College.

File photo / Gresham Outlook

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July 19 is a busy Saturday in East Multnomah County with three large events expecting to attract large crowds with their food, fun and entertainment. Those event are the Highland Games at Mt. Hood Community College, Troutdale SummerFest, and Art Walk in downtown Gresham.

Highland Games

Scots have fling at Mt. Hood Community College

This Saturday as the air around Mt. Hood Community College soaks in the wheezing drone of bagpipes, and giant objects hurtle through the sky, there should be one thing on your mind: Scotland.

Or at least that’s the aim of the Portland Highland Games Association, an organization whose purpose is “ to foster and preserve traditional Scottish Highland culture” by putting on the annual Highland Games, now in its 56th year.

The games kickoff at 7:30 p.m. Friday, July 18, with the Piobaireachd Bagpipe Competition, and the majority of activities are held all day, from 8 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. on July 19. All events will be held at Mt. Hood Community College, 26000 Southeast Stark Street, Gresham.

The event is family friendly, and tickets for the full day on July 19 are free for children under 5, $10 for children ages 6-17 and $20 for adults. Friday’s Piobaireachd Bagpipe Competition costs $5 for everyone except children under 5, who get in for free.

Event highlights:

•Amateur Heavy Athletics and Invitational Professional Athletics, 9 a.m. in the upper athletic field’s southwest corner. The heavy athletics events feature a wide array of hefty items being thrown aloft. And in what is perhaps the signature event of the Highland Games, a 120-pound wooden log, called a caber, is heaved end-over-end by competitors. Other heavy athletic events will take place throughout the day.

•Border Collie demonstration, 10 a.m., 11:30 a.m., 2 p.m. at the southeast end of the main field. Dog trainers will show off this traditional Scottish animal in its natural element — herding sheep.

•Musical performance by Golden Bough, 11 a.m., 1 p.m., 4 p.m. at the entertainment stage on the upper field. Unique folk renditions of Scottish and Irish songs from these international touring and recording artists.

SummerFest

Troutdale turns up heat with parade, pirates, ducks

From parades to poker, BOOM to Buttons, ducks to desperados, the 37th annual Troutdale SummerFest will celebrate the season in style Saturday, July 19.

The event starts off in downtown Troutdale and progresses to Glenn Otto Park on the Sandy for the afternoon events. The Rose City Timberliners Barbershop Chorus, a 12-member ensemble, will warm things up at 9:30 a.m. for the grand parade at 11. The parade, led by the Turkey Creek Desperadoes gun-fighting group, begins near Buxton Street and heads east on Historic Columbia River Highway.

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