2017 Bellingham Scottish Highland Games canceled due to lack of funding, participation

The Bellingham Scottish Highland Games will not happen this year due to a lack of funding and participation, organizers said.

The longstanding event was typically in June at Hovander Homestead Park in Ferndale. This year would have marked the 57th annual event, said Jered Winchester, president of the Bellingham Highland Games Association, which organizes the games.

The cancellation was first announced in late February on the event’s Facebook page and website.

Winchester has been competing in the games since about 1990, he said, and has been active in the association for about 15 years. His father, Glen Winchester, organized the event for about 20 years, Jered Winchester said.

Like other highland games, the local event celebrates Scottish and Celtic culture with sporting competitions, music and dancing. Activities have included caber tossing, stone put, Scottish hammer-throwing, piping and drumming.

The funding shortfalls were largely due to increasing costs to host the game at the park, Jered Winchester said. The association also lost out on grant funding on which it had relied in years past, he added.

The games attracted spectators from as far away as Arizona and the Midwest, Winchester said. Competitors came from around the world, including from countries such as New Zealand, Japan and Scotland. The games’ attendance has reached into the tens of thousands, he said, citing head counts done years ago by park employees.

Organizers plan to bring the event back in 2018.

The Skagit Valley Highland Games are still on schedule for July 8-9 at Edgewater Park in Mount Vernon, according to the Mount Vernon-based Celtic Arts Foundation.

This story was originally published March 8, 2017 at 5:00 AM with the headline "2017 Bellingham Scottish Highland Games canceled due to lack of funding, participation."