Piper Frank Toscanini of Holyoke meets one of his biggest fans, 3-year-old Tanner Kmetz of Easthampton, prior to the opening ceremonies of yesterday’s Glasgow Lands Scottish Festival at Look Park in Northampton. (Photo submitted)
NORTHAMPTON – The nineteenth annual Glasgow Lands Scottish Festival was held yesterday at Look Park under balmy skies. According to the festival program, in 1753, a group of Ulster Scot families, with all the possessions they could carry, trekked westward through the sparsely settled countryside of Massachusetts for approximately 100 miles to settle the rugged, hilly, frontier wilderness which they called Glasgow Lands, later renamed Blandford. The festival was first held in Blandford in 1994 at the local historic fairgrounds to help raise funds for the restoration of the historic White Church. Intended to be held only once, the event was so well received that it became an annual gathering. The festival was moved in 1999 to Stanley Park, and then again to Look Park in 2004.
To see video of clips of yesterday’s festival click here and here.
