Tartan Day at Toronto's majestic castle, Casa Loma.
The planning of Tartan Day.
When I found out Tartan Day was not being celebrated in Toronto, I immediately got to work to make this happen. There had been attempts to celebrate this day, but I wanted this to be on a grander scale. With only 5 weeks remaining until the big day, it was going to be a big task to make this event happen and would test my abilities in event planning. As a new immigrant to Canada, I wanted to create something free and to reach out to Canadian Scots in Toronto.
After contacting the major television stations in Toronto, CP24 Breakfast Producer Jason Campbell, expressed an interest in airing this event. This was great news, but I now had to find a venue, which could hold about 200 people and have the space to dance.
You wouldn't believe how many places I contacted and how many placed wanted to charge me $2000 for giving them 10 minutes of airtime on the No1 breakfast show. They should have been the ones giving me the money and couldn't believe the cheek!!
Anyway, it all started to fall into place, when I received a call from the Marketing Manager for Casa Loma. Providing I could secure the breakfast show, Casa Loma was prepared to host Tartan Day and give me full use of this spectacular venue.
Ok, I now had a venue, tv coverage, 3 weeks and no performers. The breakfast show, would have 4 slots dedicated to Tartan Day, from 7am to 9am. The idea was to have a talk about Tartan Day, the Maple Leaf tartan, to perform some Scottish and highland dancing and have a large pipe band.
After many phone calls and emails, the following groups had agreed to participate in Tartan Day. Casa Loma would open it's doors at 6.30am and everybody would need to be in place by 7am.
The RSCDS (Royal Scottish Country Dance Society - Toronto Branch) agreed to a demonstration dance and to encourage their members to attend the event.
The Nancy Richards School of Highland Dancers, agreed to bring down a large group of girls and perform the highland fling and sword dance.
The Paris Dover Pipe Band, agreed to bring down 18 members to play for one of the segments. Not only were the band members give up their time, but they also had to travel very early in the morning and obtain a bus to transport their equipment.
Burnett Struth Kilts from Barrie, were to talk about the maple leaf tartan and to demonstrate how kilts were made.
The support and commitment given by all the groups was fantastic and gave me confidence in making this day work.
Everything was now set, apart from the advertising, which meant time on the computer, contacting various groups, newspapers and free internet sites, that would inform local people in the GTA.
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