VIRTUAL TARTAN DAY 2020: SCOTWEEK AND NYC TARTAN WEEK JOIN FORCES TO CO-HOST

PRESS RELEASE | 20.03.04

Scotland has an enduring, proud warrior history. For an age, Scottish descendants have served as the military backbone for the British and North American fighting forces. It is that fighting spirit that we will celebrate on April 6th, 2020 during the North American holiday known as Tartan Day.

Tartan Day celebrates the Scottish Diaspora and commemorates the signing of the Declaration of Arbroath of 1320, the Scottish document thought to be the basis for the American Declaration of Independence of 1776.

As the world continues to struggle through the Covid-19 pandemic, many events, including ScotWeek, have found themselves being forced to cancel or postpone in an effort to abide by shelter-in-place orders from city, state and national governments in order to reduce the spread of the virus.

New York City has become ground zero for the Covid outbreak in the United States. Our good friends at New York City Tartan Week found themselves having to make the hard decision to cancel their event for 2020. The flagship event of NYC Tartan Week is the Tartan Day Parade that takes place through the streets of Manhattan. In the spirit of the day, the NYCTW board has decided to take their parade into the virtual realm.

We’ve taken the weekend to digest the news that left us all reeling on Thursday. Drams were consumed and brainstorms were had until the lightbulb shone brightly…if the parade can’t take place in Manhattan then why not do it virtually for the whole world to see?!

Gather your pipes and bands and play your wee hearts out, record us a Celtic tune on your fiddle or accordion, sing or recite you favourite Scottish poem, recite your best Burns quote! Don your ghillies, dance around swords, fold yourself in to a yoga position or two in a kilt, wag your furry tails! Young, old, two legs or four, we want to hear from all of you!

Share this across all you channels and friends, we want to see you in all your Scottish finery – let’s make April the 6th 2020 the first ever Global Virtual Tartan Day!

COVID-19, you may take our parade this year, but you’ll NEVER TAKE OUR PRIDE! Alba gu bràth

New York Tartan Week Facebook Page, March 15 2020

VIRTUAL TARTAN DAY

We here at ScotWeek thought this to be a wonderful idea and begun to plan not to only to join NYCTW in this event, but also to expand on the idea and offer an entire day of programming set upon celebrating all that ScotWeek and NYC Tartan Week strive to put forth with regards to Scottish culture and it’s peoples – past, present and future.

On April 6th, 2020 beginning at 8:00am PST (11:00am EST), we will be broadcasting via Instagram Live (@ScotWeek) a series of features and interviews featuring our very special ScotWeek guests and friends. Starting at 12:00PM PST (3:00PM EST) we will then re-broadcast through NYCTW’s as well as our own social media accounts. Our tentative line-up includes:

★Graham McTavish, actor (Outlander) & ScotWeek co-founder

★Grant O’Rourke, actor (Outlander)

★Louis Fantasia, director & ScotWeek co-founder

★Craig McGinlay, actor (Outlander) – taking questions

★Steve Cooke, musician & ScotWeek co-founder

★Ruth Connell, actress (Supernatural)

★Laura-Marie Nixey, NIXEY

★Claire Campbell, Prickly Thistle

★Kelsey Deanne, actress & ScotWeek Director

★Kyle Dawson, president of New York City Tartan Week

★Cindi McIntosh, Bag Piper & ScotWeek President

★Matt Gamboa (Curling LA)

And more to come!

Please join ScotWeek and New York Tartan Week for this first-ever, very special event. Join in on the fun by posting your photos and videos to our Social Media feeds and/or tagging us in your own posts.

NYCTW SOCIAL MEDIA

SCOTWEEK SOCIAL MEDIA

Facebook: @ScotWeekLA
Instagram: @ScotWeek
Twitter: @ScotWeek
You Tube: Go Here

Alba gu bràth!!!

2 replies

Thomas Milelr says:
July 15, 2021 at 4:55 am

I was living in North Dakota a few years ago, and every year in the town I was they have a St Patrick’s day event. So me being an actual real life Scotsman living and working there, though yeah, good opportunity to wear the kilt for a day. So we’re in one of the bars, and there are a bunch of women standing staring at me and my kilt. One of them comes over and shows me her t-shirt which had the logo ‘Official Under Kilt Inspector’ on it, and so she asked if she could inspect what was under my kilt, I replied ‘Well isn’t that something, I just happen to be an official ‘Breast Inspector’ so if you’ll let me examine your breasts, I’ll let you examine what’s under my kilt. She said ‘You’re disgusting!’ and stormed off. I’m guessing the irony was lost on her
Reply
Thomas Milelr says:
July 15, 2021 at 5:04 am

Time for an independent Scotland ! Historically, you have more in common with Iceland, Norway and the Faroese, than the British crown. Freedom and liberty NOW.
Reply