Perhaps no other country has marketed themselves and their culture as effectively as Scotland did in the build up to its inaugural Homecoming 2009 initiative that featured more than two hundred events that were held throughout the country, from Burns Night on January 25 through St. Andrew’s Day on November 30, 2009. The ten-month calendar of events featured a series of activities throughout the country that ranged from Highland Games and Gatherings, to Tartan Day celebrations, Wallace Remembrance ceremonies, music, dance and theatre performances, among others, all with a focus on celebrating the history, culture and heritage of Scotland. The keystone event of the Homecoming Scotland 2009 calendar was “The Gathering,” held in Edinburgh that encouraged people of Scottish descent to “Come Home.”
The Homecoming Scotland initiative is being repeated in 2014 with the featured event this year centered around the 700th anniversary of the Battle of Bannockburn that witnessed the Scottish armies of Robert the Bruce defeat the English in a decisive battle in 1314. Bannockburn Live is being held on June 28th and 29th on the same historic grounds and features many of the same events found at The Gathering in 2009. Major events include a clan village, battle reenactments, encampments and the best of Scottish music, history, culture, food and drink. Once again, thousands of people of Scottish descent have been invited to “come home” to Scotland to celebrate their heritage and culture.
In this paper I explore the ways that Scottish national cultural identity has and is being promoted by the tourist organizations in Scotland and how the media campaigns of 2009 and 2014 allow for a particular representation of the culture to be seen and recognized by native and non-native Scots worldwide. To better understand what is being produced and for whom, I investigate the tourist–based initiative Homecoming Scotland 2009 and its featured event, The Gathering,in contrast to Homecoming Scotland 2014 and it’s focus on the Battle of Bannockburn to examine how Scottishness is being sold, consumed, and utilized as a tool to encourage the scattered Scottish Diaspora of over forty million people to “come home.” Questions I explore include: What do the tourists expect Scotland to be upon their arrival? Is that expectation achievable? How do organizers construct and depict this home? How do native born Scots understand the tourist expectations and how do they respond to these events? And, finally, how does the impending Referendum 2014 vote for an independent Scotland change how this major event is understood and marketed this year? Through participant observation, formal and informal interviews and surveys of the participants and spectators I explore these questions and how Scottish cultural identity is understood, marketed, sold, and consumed.
About the presenterKaralee Dawn MacKay
Karalee Dawn MacKay is an assistant professor, nontraditional student mentor, and the Academic Director for the annual international study abroad immersion course in the M.A. in Arts Management program at George Mason University. Past courses have traveled to Belgium, England, France, Ireland, Scotland, and The Netherlands.
A first generation/nontraditional student, she received her M.A. and Ph.D. in Theatre History & Performance Studies from the University of Maryland – College Park.