Festival and Highland Games provide unique taste of Scotland

Though he was born and raised in Scotland, Stuart Barr didn't pick up the bagpipes until he saw them at a South Side Irish Parade in Chicago.

"My parents were kind of shocked," Barr said. "(They thought) 'Why did you finally learn the bagpipes?'"

He chuckled and said he had been away from Scotland for so long he missed its traditions. When he saw the piper's fingers moving to produce an all-consuming sound, he knew he wanted to be a part of it.

Barr and his 30-member band, Tunes of Glory, will be among more than 20 competing this weekend at the Illinois St. Andrew Society's 24th annual Scottish Festival and Highland Games, said Gus Noble, president of The Scottish Home, an assisted-living community that's home to about 85 seniors in North Riverside.

The festival and games open today and continue Saturday in Oak Brook. Throughout the weekend, people can enjoy live Celtic music, 100 dancers, whiskey tasting and a parade of Scottish dogs. Meanwhile skillful athletes will duke it out in the haggis-eating and heavy athletics competitions.

Musicians such as Barr will participate in the bagpipe competition, said Jim Sim, chairman for the festival's piping and drumming and a drummer who has competed for 40 years.

The contest is run under the auspices of the MidWest Pipe Band Association, which hosts several competitions nationwide every year. To compete, each band must be a registered member of one of the 10 pipe band associations in North America.

The bands compete within their grades, hoping to place in the top three spots. Bands are rated by the association from one through five, with grade one used for the most experienced players. Only grades two through five will be represented at the festival in Oak Brook, Sim said.

He added that each band is critiqued by four judges: two evaluating the pipers, one the drummer and one the ensemble as a whole. The musicians will be evaluated on tone, tuning, expression and rhythm.

"There's a lot of bands that don't compete. They play parades and bars. I think that's the image of what we do," Sim said. "If people would come out and hear what good bands really sound like, they would be shocked and really enjoy it."

Noble said the festival tries to incorporate both Scottish and Scottish-American traditions.

And for Barr, that means playing the bagpipes like he had heard so many times in his native land.

"It's like being home for a day," he said.