Changes to mark Estes Park’s 48th Scotfest

ESTES PARK — The traditional downtown parade won’t happen this year, but a new Sunday matinee for the ceremonial “tattoo” has been added for this weekend’s 48th annual Longs Peak Scottish-Irish Highland Festival.

Nearly 80,000 people are likely to converge on Estes Park’s fairgrounds over the three-day weekend that begins Friday, said Peggy Young, who was handed management of the festival in 2020 by her father, dentist Dr. James Durward, who founded the event in 1977.

They’ll see and hear eight bagpipe bands from Scotland, New Zealand, Canada and the United States, be entertained by Celtic-themed singers and dancers, cheer on kilted athletes, watch as the “Dogs of the British Isles” demonstrate their herding skills, sip aged high-end scotch, and research their family histories at scores of clan tents.

What they won’t see this year, Young said, is a parade down Elkhorn Avenue, which fell prey to the last stages of construction of the controversial Estes Downtown Loop, the one-way couplet that rerouted eastbound U.S. Highway 36 in hopes of speeding traffic to and from Rocky Mountain National Park.

“I just had to make a call, because it was so torn up with no pavement,” Young said. “I didn’t want to take a chance with anyone getting hurt. It was the hardest decision I’ve made.”

After she made that decision in early summer, however, the work was completed, and a ribbon-cutting is planned for sometime in October. 

“They’ve got it done and the roads are paved,” Young said, “but it was too late for me to gather all the information and put it out there.

To compensate, a parade on the festival field, featuring the pipe bands, clans, dogs and more has been scheduled after opening ceremonies on Sunday. “We’ll see how that goes,” she said.

“We have several new entertainers coming over from Scotland, the Black Watch cadets, and the RCMP down from Canada,” she said. “For the tattoo, we also have the Army West Point Drum and Bugle Corps and the U.S. Navy’s Northwest band.”

Importing pipe bands proved a challenge this year because of “really difficult budget cuts in Canada and Scotland, so it was hard to get the military here this year,” Young said. “Hopefully it’ll all work out next year. We just roll with it.”

The most notable new feature this year is a 1:30 p.m. Sunday matinee of the tattoo, which will also be held beginning at 7:30 p.m. .Friday and Saturday and feature more than 200 performers.

According to the festival website, “the term ‘tattoo’ derives from the cries of the 17th- and 18th-century Dutch innkeepers, who, as the fifes and drums of the local regiment signaled a return to quarters, would cry, ‘Doe den tap toe!’ or ‘Turn off the taps!’ The sound of the ‘taps’ caused the innkeeper’s customers to depart and return to their barracks. The word ‘tattoo’ evolved over time, and now refers to the large-scale ceremonial performances of military music by massed bands that we know today.”

How the tattoo is run is one of the biggest changes, she said.

“I’ve got a staff now to help me out, direct, and get the music,” Young said. “This was out of my wheelhouse. This was Dad’s baby. I want to learn more because that was something Dad did.”

Durward, who died in May 2023 after 43 years at the helm of the festival, was proud of his Scottish heritage and a lifelong student of his family genealogy. Knowing Estes Park’s history of homesteading by Scottish immigrants in the 1800s, he wanted to develop a family-oriented festival that would display the games, dance and music of Scotland. He started the festival in 1977 while president of what was then the Estes Park Chamber of Commerce to boost commerce in the tourism-oriented town between the Labor Day weekend and the onset of aspen-viewing traffic.

Young’s son Ty now directs the music at the tattoo, “knowing what his grandpa would have wanted,” Young said, while Ty’s brother Jeff handles the sound system.

“We’re still keeping it as a family business,” she said. “My team and I are dedicated to honoring Dad’s legacy.”

That team consists of two paid employees through the year, and up to 60 volunteers who help during the festival, Young said. They all know how important the festival is to the town’s economy; Young said the festival alone generated $1.3 million in revenue as the last event the town held before the September 2013 deluge and flood, “and I’m sure it’s just gone up since then.”

What are her plans for Scotfest’s future?

“I really haven’t thought that far,” she said. “I’m just starting to build what I thought my vision should be, but we’re pretty maxed on our real estate here, so we’re thinking about how can we utilize the space better.”

But basically, she doesn’t want to mess with success.

“Dad had the great wheel,” Young said. “I’m not changing the wheel. I’m just adding spokes to it.”