Scottish Cultural Society of St. Petersburg, Inc.

Report on the Scottish Village at the SPIFFS Folk Fair: October 20-22, 2022

Our main event of the year is now concluded with the SPIFFS 47th Annual International Folk Fair in Albert Whitted Park on October 20-22 now behind us.  The Scottish tent did a brisk business with the stamping of passports on the two school days.  Students were asked to find out the answers to two questions to be included in their passports.  Since the theme of this year’s Folk Fair was “unity”, they learned that the Scottish Gaelic word was “Aonachd”.  They also learned that in Scotland, 98.6% of the population speaks English, 30.1% speak Scots, and only 1.1% speak Scottish Gaelic.  On posters in the tent there were examples of words and phrases in the Scots language and Scottish Gaelic.

Interested students were also given a short handout giving interesting information about Scotland and had a chance to identify tartan patterns associated with Scottish families and clans.  Interest was shown to our cut out of Nessie, the Loch Ness Monster.  One student assured us that he knew she was Scottish because he had seen her on his trip to Scotland.  Many were also attracted to the diorama of the Standing Stones of Callanish and the poster of Merida from the movie “Brave”.  Finally, students were entertained in the tent by Virginia Thompson playing Scottish tunes on her violin.    

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