The NorCal Celtic Festival was held in downtown Woodland Saturday encouraging the community members to celebrate the Scottish and Celtic culture.

The 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. festival was free and showcased Celtic culture to thousands through music, dance and food featuring the Scottish Highland Dance Sacramento Valley Championships, kilted pipe bands, solo pipers, drummers and more along Main Street.

Al Eby, founder, and director of the California Honey Festival, helped organize the event to bring more people to Woodland and showcase the community.

“I’ve been in this town for so long and I’ve been through the phases where downtown was struggling to keep businesses open and not change all the time, so having events like this and making Woodland a true destination, a reason to come to Woodland, is so important,” he emphasized. “It’s just so important to have many events and getting people into our community to find out what Woodland is about.”

Malachi Johannsen, who participated in the festival’s “pipes and pubs” championship, explained that the competition is a series of contests held at local brewing in Northern California featuring solo piping and drumming, pipe bands, dancers and more.

“I’m getting ready to start my ninth year so I’m finishing up my eighth year,” Johannsen, 15, said regarding his time playing the bagpipes.

The festival was a first for many contestants used to competing in breweries who were instead competing on Main Street for passersby to see.

Although Johannsen said he enjoyed performing in the festival because he’s only performed at pubs before, he enjoyed the attention he and his group received from the community.

“It’s nice for the support that people give,” he said. “A lot of people don’t really know they have Scottish in them until they go to these vendors and they see their Scottish heritage.”

Lauren Boyd McLachlan, president of the Scottish Information Society, provided festival attendees an opportunity to learn about their Scottish heritage in her “History, Heraldry, Genealogy and Genetics” booth.

She explained that The Sacramento Caledonian Club — a nonprofit organization formed to preserve Scottish heritage — has held the Scottish games and gathering for over 140 years.

“They have been at the Yolo County Fairgrounds here in Woodland for about 20 years,” she said. “After the COVID shutdown, we have had no Scottish games for many reasons.”McLachlan said she hopes the games will return to Woodland because they are very profitable for the city and its residents.

“We get people from all walks of life at the Scottish games,” she emphasized. “They can be Scottish for a day.”

Jorge Luis Jimenez came downtown with his 2-year-old son for a car appointment and didn’t realize the festival was going on.

“It’s pretty entertaining,” he said. “All the bagpipes and seeing the whole community here with a lot to choose from all the vendors.”

Jimenez explained that his son enjoyed himself and was fascinated by the bagpipe players.

“We walked by two of them and he just stares and listens,” he said. “But we’re having a great time.”

He added that he hopes this event returns in the future so that he and his son could get to learn more about Scottish culture, history and heritage.

“I like to learn a little bit about everybody’s culture,” he added.

The event continued throughout the day, featuring several food trucks, cultural demonstrations and live performances in the evening by Wicked Tinkers and Paddy on the Binge at Heritage Plaza.

The event was sponsored by Visit Woodland, Yolo Eats, Woodland Hoteliers Group and Pipes Pubs.

To learn more about the festival, visit norcalcelticfestival.com.