The modern Highland Gathering or Highland Games is a day full of various events and activities. It is a mix of Scottish sporting and heavy events (eg caber tossing), Scottish music including pipe bands and massed pipes and drums displays, highland dancing, food and produce stalls, community stalls, Scottish Clan tents and - perhaps above all - enormous community spirit built off a base of Scottish culture.  Highland Gatherings are a fete, a fair, a market and music festival combined into one. 

The Canberra Highland Gathering is an Australian take on this traditional Scottish event.  Multiple pipe bands descend on Canberra for individual band performances as well as participation in the stirring opening and closing massed pipes and drums displays.  Highland dancers from all around Australia compete in the Canberra City Championships.  There are spectacular displays of Scottish heavy sporting events - including the Caber Toss and Lifting of the Stones - by the Kilted Warriors.  Each year we seek to add additional entertainment to these core Highland Gathering activities.  More information on our 2025 program can be found at the “Entertainment” and “Programme” tabs on this web site. 

The Canberra College of Piping & Drumming also hosts an information tent for those who want to inquire about learning pipes or drums through our College learner program.  For those interested in understanding their Scottish ancestry and identifying their Clan tartan, numerous Clan tents are in attendance and will be able to answer most of those genealogy questions.  And in between watching the pipe bands, dancers and other displays you can browse your way through the wide array of market and Scottish goods stalls as well as grab a bite to eat from the extensive range of food stalls (including traditional Scottish food such as Haggis!).  Bentspoke – a Canberra based brewer – will also be on site offering  a range of their refreshing local beers.  

Once the daytime events are complete, the celebration of Scottish culture extends into the evening with a traditional Scottish Ceilidh night at the Canberra Burns Club (directly opposite the oval where the Gathering is being held).  Entertainment throughout the evening by a local celtic folk group mixed up with some more piping and highland dancing.   

The final bit of good news about the Canberra Highland Gathering - entry to both the Gathering and the Ceilidh is FREE.  We look forward to seeing you there!