The Pikes Peak Celtic Festival

Yesterday was the longest day of the year, and also the hottest day so far. Ninety-two degrees! Pat and I decided to brave the heat to check out the Pikes Peak Celtic Festival in Memorial Park. If you're a fan of bagpipes or kilted men throwing large, heavy objects, this event is for you. (Trust me on the bagpipes thing. If you don't love bagpipes, do not go to the Celtic Festival. You will get a headache. Consider yourself warned.)

It was a great time! I've never been to a Celtic Festival, so I didn't know what to expect, other than lots of kilts. I was amazed at all the great musicians, the dancing, and the feats of strength on display. The festival seemed to be a hodgepodge of Irish, Scottish and even Welsh culture. It was definitely a lot of fun to photograph. Here are some of my favorite images from the event.

The sports all seemed to involve the throwing of heavy objects.

Yes, that is basically a tree.

And yes, he threw it. This man threw a tree. A TREE. Apparently this is called the caber toss. (As for me, I'm just glad he decided not to go "commando" under that kilt.)

The sheaf toss. At first I thought they were saying "sheep toss" and was horrified. I'm so glad I was wrong on that one.

I'm not sure what this one was called, but I was impressed that he managed to get that heavy weight over the bar. This and a couple of the other Highland sports I saw seemed to consist of throwing a heavy object as high as you can, then running like hell so it doesn't come down on your head.

Admittedly I am not a huge fan of Irish rock bands (for some reason they always make me feel like I'm in a beer commercial), but these guys were fantastic. Rowdy and fun! They did a rousing version of Paint it Black.

What's a Celtic festival without Irish dancers?

So many bagpipers! This guy was part of the Queen City Pipe Band out of Denver. They were just incredible!

I was utterly enthralled by this young woman. She twirled her drumsticks elaborately between the beats. It was so cool.

The kiddos couldn't resist the beat of so many drums. There were lots of cute little dancers!