The sun beamed down on the hordes of people who lapped up the Caledonian spirit at Armadale’s Highland Gathering on Sunday.
Billed as WA’s largest Scottish-themed event, this year’s Highland Gathering retained that mantle with the City of Armadale estimating a crowd in excess of 20,000 people.
Visitor numbers at this year’s event rivalled previous years’, indicating that the temporary venue change to Champion Lakes failed to dampen the enthusiasm for the festival.
And, in fact, numbers of entrants into the Perth Kilt Run were up on last year.
“The Perth Kilt Run route was noted as a great addition in the venue change, providing a scenic and accessible route for all participants,” Mayor Ruth Butterfield said.
But the new venue did throw up some heavy logistical challenges for event organisers, most notably a lack of parking and shade trees.
The start of the Kilt Run was delayed to compensate for the entrants who struggled to find parking. And there were a few grumbles heard from those making the long trek onto the island from their hard-fought roadside parking spaces.
“We acknowledge there were some challenges with the parking and shuttle buses which unfortunately impacted some patrons,” Mayor Butterfield said.
“The City of Armadale is committed to reviewing and learning from this experience and adapting these lessons for future events. We will share these learnings with VenuesWest, so they can share this with other event organisers in the future.”
Sunscreen and water tanks were also liberally supplied throughout the festival to contend with the unanticipated heat of the day.
But the mayor praised the thousands of visitors who respected the ‘no-swim’ rule in spite of the temptation to dip a toe into the surrounding lake.
The venue change did have some unexpected benefits too: it was a nice addition to have the dragon boaters show off their sport, and the Highlander vs redcoat battles backing onto the heavy games meant it was possible to get a vantage point to watch both simultaneously. Double the fun.
“Champion Lakes is a great venue, and we are open to the opportunity should Champion Lakes be considered the right location for a future event,” Mayor Butterfield said.
But the City of Armadale has confirmed that from next year the Highland Gathering will return to Minnawarra Park in line with the end of the Armadale line renewal.
Congratulations to the winners of this year’s Perth Kilt Run:
Fastest 3 overall: Eliot Wardrobe, Tych McSwain and Ethan Bellomo
Kids Under 12: Ruby Henderson and Eli Cox
Youth 12-17: Eliot Wardrobe and Scarlett Nunn
Adult 18-59: Tych McSwain and Sandra Siviour
Senior 60+: John McShane and Liz Bryson
Photographs – Richard Polden
