Scottish Festival Paints Park Plaid

It wasn’t even noon yet.

The official opening ceremonies at Saturday’s Scottish festival in Riverfront Park still hadn’t taken place. But something delightful was about to happen.

First, though, let’s set the scene.

It would be romanticizing things to claim this event turns the east end of the park into a sort of Brigadoon. There’s nothing magical about a sign saying “Whit Ur Ye Starin’ at? Go Buy a Tee shirt.”

But there is something about the wall-to-wall squeal and wheeze of bagpipes and the sight of kids performing springy Scottish dance moves that makes you want to sip an undrinkable ale or shop for plaids.

And a row of vendors made sure festival-goers had that chance. There were plaid blankets, plaid shawls and plaid neckties. (If your name happened to be, say, MacKinnon, MacKenzie or MacMillan, you could choose from multiple patterns tailored specifically for your clan.)

You could buy imported shortbread, wool knee-socks, books about castles and battles, marked-down color reproductions of your family’s coat of arms or a video called “The Original Scottish Karaoke.”

“I’m just a first-generation American,” bragged a guy at one of the tents. “My dad’s from Scotland.”

Nearby, a big man in a kilt, sunglasses and a “Heavy Events” T-shirt demonstrated old-time highland athletic pursuits. One impressive throw of a big metal ball attached to a long stick resulted in the loud-and-clear snapping of the stick as it landed. “Aw, man,” said the burly hurler. “Bummer.”

But it would have been tough to beat what happened when, without fanfare, five sheep were released onto the grounds and a black and white sheep dog sprinted after them.

Responding to a trainer’s whistles, the lightning-quick border collie herded the livestock around the Lilac Bowl with a body-language code of staring, head-dipping and crouching.

In the middle of this demonstration, a little boy, just a wee lad of about 4, bolted away from his family and started running past the bunched-up sheep.

The dog shot the boy a nononsense look, and the kid froze in place. After a second, the dog looked back at the sheep, and the little boy knew it was OK to proceed.

A smattering of applause blended with the sound of the bagpipes.

, DataTimes MEMO: Being There is a weekly feature that visits Inland Northwest gatherings.