2023 Kilt Skate Season

It’s been a remarkable kilt skate season. With public health protocols lifted, community events returned. Never in the nine-year history of the Great Canadian Kilt Skate have we seen so many new organizations join the skate family: in Lumsden, Brampton, Moncton, Quebec City, Vancouver and Antigonish. This year’s winter weather welcomed the newcomers and rewarded those with the patience and persistence to host community kilt skates over the years.

The season began in Lumsden SK on Robbie Burns Night (January 25) when J.P. Bautista-Hunter planned a combination kilt skate followed by a poetry reading at the local library. Neither the skaters nor the poetry fans showed up in the numbers J.P. had hoped, but he was rewarded with many new contacts in the community and this augers well for a repeat event next year.

The following Sunday, January 29, Montreal hosted its ninth annual kilt skate. During the Covid pandemic, the St. Andrew’s Society of Montreal had shut down community events, but the city remained well represented year after year by many contributions to the “Home Edition.” All in all, Montrealers were delighted to be able to kilt skate together again as a community.

The following weekend, February 5, in Concord, NH, the New Hampshire Scots hosted their second annual kilt skate — once again the the weather gods smiled.

The following weekend brought a kilt skate double-header. On Saturday, February 11, the Canadian Chapter of the Clan Gregor Society hosted the first-ever community event in Brampton ON.

The next day, February 12, the St. Andrews-Caledonian Society of Calgary hosted a community event as part of the city’s Chinook Blast winter festival.

The weekend of February 18 was extended in some provinces to include the Family Day holiday on Monday. The long weekend was chosen by several organizations as a suitable date for their kilt skate. In fact, Saturday saw the launch of inaugural kilt skates in three communities spread across Canada. Moncton’s first-ever event was organized by the Greater Moncton Scottish Association as part of the PolarFest winter carnival.

Quebec City’s first-ever kilt skate was held on the Plains of Abraham and organized by the Scottish Society of Ottawa’s Director of Kilt Skate and Communications, Andy MacCulloch, in the city where he resides.

On the West Coast, British Columbia’s first-ever kilt skate was held in North Vancouver, organized by the British Columbia Highland Games and World Music Festival.

The inaugural events in Quebec City and Vancouver were notable in the way that, independently of each other, the organizers came up with the idea of hosting a kilt skate late at night so as to include an after-party in the nearby pub.

The next day, February 19, saw two major kilt skate contenders host community events just 80 kilometers up the road from each other. Each year, the townships of North Glengarry and South Glengarry take turns hosting a kilt skate ceilidh and carnival. This year was North Glengarry’s turn.

Later in the afternoon, the Scottish Society of Ottawa hosted its ninth annual event.

The next day, February 20, a kilt skate was held in Nova Scotia for the first time, and the Antigonish Highland Society brought out large numbers of kilt skaters to their inaugural event.

The 2023 kilt skate season wrapped up on Sunday, February 26, with two cities that, during the Covid pandemic, had cancelled their community events. From the numbers that came out this year, it’s evident that the Fergus Scottish Festival has developed a large kilt skate following.

The St. Andrew’s Society of Winnipeg has also proven its ability to bring members to the kilt skate party in good weather and bad, and this year they were rewarded with sunny skies and reasonable temperatures.

That’s a total of 12 Canadian and one American city that hosted kilt skates in 2023 — one of the best year’s ever. Along the way, some organizations found they could not stage a community skate this year. These include previous hosts in New York City NY, Tracadie PEI, Toronto ON, Saskatoon SK, and Lethbridge AB, but we hope to see them back in the kilt skate family in 2024.

In the meantime, the judges huddle together to consult their notes as they determine who will wear the laurels of this year’s Kilt Skate Capital of Canada. Their observation, thus far, is that they’ve never seen such a close race among so many worthy contenders!