ScotFestBC moving out of Coquitlam
After years of feeling physically and financially constrained, the Highland Games are packing their bagpipes and leaving Coquitlam in favour of Ladner.
“Ladner has the flat space we need for the future,” stated ScotFestBC executive director Mike Chisholm in an email to the Dispatch. “We love the Lafarge area of [Town Centre Park] but we need more space for our caber tossing, pipe band competitions and to allow the return of stock (sheep) dogs.”
The 2027 event is scheduled to be held at Paterson Park.
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The two-day June event typically features pipe bands, whisky school, Scottish country dancing, a series of competitions including the hammer toss, as well as cultural workshops
Following funding reductions at the federal, provincial, and municipal levels, the arrangement with Coquitlam became “unsustainable,” Chisholm told the Dispatch in 2025.
When asked about the situation at the time, Coquitlam’s senior manager of economic development Eric Kalnins, stated it would be ideal to keep the fest.
The city has consistently funded about 25 percent of the Highland Games event budget, Kalnins explained.
“The positive economic and cultural impact [of ScotFestBC] is important to the community and we hope to see it continue as part of our diverse and evolving festival mix,” Kalnins wrote in an email to the Dispatch in 2025.
However, Kalnins noted that Coquitlam, like many municipalities in the region, are consistently being asked for more funding.
The fest’s difficulties in Coquitlam date back to at least 2022.
“The idea of a grand street parade is in limbo, as is the whole future of ScotFestBC in Coquitlam,” Chisholm said at the time.
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