The Highland Games at St Andrews, Scotland

Highland Games festivals are popular in North America, where many people of Scottish descent live. But they're even more popular in their home country of Scotland. There's a boisterous simplicity to them that shows how even the most dour of Scots can forget their troubles for an afternoon and throw a really good party.

The St Andrews Highland Games always come on the last Sunday in July (July 25 this year) and they always take place in a field in North Haugh, on the northwest edge of town. People come from all over Fife to see them, even though they are only one of a whole series of Highland Games in the area and Fife is technically the Lowlands not the Highlands. The hours generally run from 11am to 5pm, though some competitions start earlier than 11 and people may linger later than 5.

At their heart, the Highland Games focus on a series of contests of skill, strength, speed and endurance. The layout is centered on a grassy field where the contests occur. These include foot races, bicycle races and more exotic sports like caber tossing. For those who don't know what a caber is, it's a very long log that you have to pick up by one end, balance vertically and toss as far as you can. It's a bit like javelin-throwing for the Flintstones.

There are two other major competitions-bagpipes and Highland dancing. The bagpipes judges are set up in the southwestern corner of the field in the shade of the trees. Young pipers enter the ring and stand before the judges. They first run through scales and then perform a piece that they have practiced. Pipes take a bit of warming up, so you can always hear someone tuning or practicing under the trees before his exam.

The Highland dancing occurs on an elevated wooden stage. Young girls in various age classes dance the same choreographed Highland flings as a group. In conservative Scotland, pipers are usually boys and dancers are usually girls, but this is slowly changing.