Aztec, New Mexico

Aztec, New Mexico may be a small town tucked away near the Four Corners of New Mexico, Utah, Arizona and Colorado. But it’s the home of the biggest Craic in the region. And ClanDonnell was there.

The Aztec Highland Games & Celtic Festival was Saturday and Sunday, October 4th and 5th, 2014, with a kickoff party on Friday.

The festival included the Four Corners Regional Highland Games Championship. If you haven’t seen Highland games before, you are missing out. The competitors are very large men in kilts throwing very large objects — including telephone poles (called cabers). Women compete as well – they are not as large as the men but are equally athletic.

And of course pipers, Highland dancers, and clan tents.

ClanDonnell was somewhere in the mix. We told stories at center stage and in the children’s tent. We had a half-hour set three times on Saturday and once on Sunday, plus a short teaser on Friday.

The festival was at Riverside Park along the Animas River. It was named Rio de las Animas or River of Souls by a Spanish explorer. I’m not quite certain what souls the explorer found in the river. The Animas is part of the Colorado River system, meaning, I think, that the water originated somewhere in the Rocky Mountains and will end up the Pacific Ocean.

The Daily Times of Farmington, New Mexico, featured ClanDonnell in its preview of the Aztec Highland Games & Celtic Festival, under the headline “A celebration of heritage: Author to tell Irish stories at the Aztec Highland Games and Celtic Festival”.

We created an original story for the festival, with the setting starting in Ireland and ending in Aztec, New Mexico. We told the story on the small stage, having children acting out the parts.

Bottom photograph by Linda McDonnell. All others by Charles Stacey.