Scottish Irish Fest tattoo in Estes Park
The Longs Peak Scottish-Irish Highland Festival, one of Estes Park's most attended annual events, will take place Sept. 6-8. Due to downtown road construction, however, the parade will not be held on Elkhorn Avenue this year. A parade will take place on Sunday following the opening ceremonies on the festival field featuring the Parade of the Clans and Dogs of the British Isles escorted by local pipe and drum bands into the tattoo arena. Credit: Patti Brown / Estes Valley Voice

While the Longs Peak Scottish Irish Highland Festival will take place this year from September 6 to 8, the parade which traditionally travels down Elkhorn Avenue cannot be held because of the construction on Elkhorn Avenue, said festival president Peggy Young.

Young, whose father James Durward started the Scottish Highland festival in 1978, said she is disappointed that the parade has to be canceled due to “town-wide construction,” but she wants people to know that the festival held at the Stanely Park Fairgrounds and Ball Field, including the tattoo, will take place.

Although the parade through downtown Estes Park has been scuttled, this year’s festival will introduce a new Sunday matinee tattoo performance with a tribute to the 80th anniversary of D-Day.

Before the Sunday matinee tattoo, there will be a parade following the opening ceremonies on the festival field featuring the Parade of the Clans and Dogs of the British Isles escorted by local pipe and drum bands into the tattoo arena.

Tickets are on sale at scotfest.com and there is a coupon code – SUNSPECIAL – which will provide a 20% discount on the Sunday matinee or a 2024 Thistle Club Membership with the purchase of a field entry ticket for Sunday. The coupon is good through Aug. 6.

Scottish Irish fest in Estes Park
The annual Scottish-Irish Festival Tattoo is an impressive show with some 200 performers featuring Celtic and military music, Highland dancing, and a great deal of pageantry. Credit: Patti Brown / Estes Valley Voice

This year’s festival features athletic championships, pipe bands, drumming, and solo bag pipe competitions, Celtic folk music, a Ceilidh rock concert, marching bands, highland dancing, massed bagpipes and more than 200 performers from around the world.

What exactly is a tattoo?

While many people know of a tattoo as an inked design on someone’s skin, a military tattoo is a large ceremonial performance of marching and ceremonial music by military bands.

According to the festival’s website the term derives from the cries of the 17th and 18th century Dutch innkeepers who “as the fifes and drums of the local regiment signaled a return to quarters would cry ‘Doe den tap toe!’ or ‘Turn off the taps!’ The sound of the ‘taps’ caused the innkeeper’s customers to depart and return to their barracks.”