COSTA MESA : Scottish Festival Strikes Happy Note

The 3-year-old boy was too shy to talk to strangers, but when the band started playing, his inhibitions were cast off. He snapped his fingers, wiggled, and began to shuffle his feet--all to the soothing melody of Scottish bagpipes.

Others were not as exuberant as the child or the bagpipers in kilts, but the smiles on the listeners’ faces reflected their enjoyment of the traditional music featured at the 59th Annual Scottish Festival.

The festival, held at the Orange County Fairgrounds, could very well have been the traditional Highlands gathering of the clans as more than 50,000 attended on Saturday and Sunday to experience Scottish culture and history.

“It’s a place to meet old friends,” said a woman wearing a richly colored red, gold and green skirt and scarf, which she described as the colors of her ancestral family, the Dunbar clan. “We can trace our lineage to many of the oldest clans in Old Scotland, and that’s part of why the festival is so unique.”

The festivities ran the gamut from marching bands and bagpipe performers from around the world to athletes participating in the hammer throw to border collies herding sheep and ducks.

During the festival, the typical scene was of young men in colorful kilts imitating thick brogues while the aroma of bangers--Scottish pork sausage--and onions wafted through the air.

For the past seven years, Donald Fornear, 64, and his wife, Rosemary, 54, have driven from Tucson to attend the festival.

“I like it all,” said Donald Fornear. “There’s not one single word to describe why this festival brings us back year after year. The music, the people, the food--everything--just draw us back.”