Highland Games spirit remains
BY DI SNEDDON
Aberdeen Highland Games president Charles Cooke may be disappointed the event didn’t go ahead this year but he is certainly raring to go for 2021. Mr Cooke is waving the flag for the event which happens to be a scarf made from the official Upper Hunter Tartan.
Maybe it was written in the stars. Aberdeen Highland Games was to have turned 21 this year, a huge milestone worthy of a huge celebration.
Covid put a stop to all that but next year the 21st birthday celebrations will be held in the year of 2021. Maybe that’s a good sign.
Charles Cooke was the instigator of the event all those years ago and he remains at the lead of a hard-working committee who were forced to call it off this year due to covid uncertainty.
“It is a massive job organising every year and, in some ways, it is good to have a bit of a breather,” Mr Cooke told The Hunter River Times.
The decision was made to cancel the 2020 event back in March.
“We didn’t know what was going on and we spend a considerable amount of money before the event even happens in advertising, that is a very dramatic bill, and we just couldn’t risk the prospect of having to cancel at the last minute,” he said.
“Even if we ran it on a smaller format, we questioned whether people would travel?”
The event, which contributes an estimated $100,000 into the Aberdeen economy each year, will be missed massively but in retrospect, perhaps it is an opportunity to fully appreciate what the event brings.
Mr Cooke said the 11 acre venue at Jefferson Park was a perfect location that brought in an additional 7000 people to the township on the first weekend in July each year.
Some come just for a day while others spend the weekend, many camping at the event on site.
With the event now delayed until 2021, the committee has time to come up with something special to mark the event’s 21st celebrations, especially after the achievements last year.
The committee revealed the first official tartan for the Upper Hunter encompassing Scone, Aberdeen, Muswellbrook and Singleton and all the villages in between.
This first tartan was made from wool from Nundle Wool Mill and was created by Fred and Marie Lawson, hobby crofters who run a weaving mill under the banner Crofters Tartan Weavers at their Spring Ridge Farm in North West New South Wales.