How Tartan Week in New York has become such a success
Part festival, part networking event, and part national shop window, Tartan Week in New York is looking to become even bigger
Every April, just as New York begins to venture bleary eyed into the spring sunshine, something remarkable happens: the city is confronted with a sea of tartan. From all over the United States, representatives of the Scottish diaspora descend on the city in an annual celebration of Scottish heritage and culture as the annual Tartan Week events take place.
For a few short days, Manhattan finds itself home to thousands of kilted revellers, several thousand bagpipers, and enough tartan to reupholster the entire Upper East Side.
Over a week of events, the centre piece is the peculiar joy of marching down Sixth Avenue in the heart of New York in the company of thousands of fellow Scots. Pipe bands, Highland dancers and Caledonian Societies take centre stage as baffled New Yorkers do their very best to avoid being press-ganged into the many spontaneous outbursts of Strip the Willow.
Hollywood glitz
Like any great New York event, a good headliner is required. Grand Marshals over the years have included actors, comedians, and cultural icons – from Billy Connolly to Sean Connery – adding a touch of Hollywood glitz to this most Scottish of occasions. This year the honours will be undertaken by Outlander’s Sam Heughan.
The modern New York incarnation of Tartan Week dates back to the late 1990s when a caucus of Senators of Scottish descent secured the declaration of a “National Tartan Day”. The US Senate issued this decree to recognise the achievements and contributions made by Scottish Americans to the United States.
The event became such a success that it grew into Tartan Week, now arguably the biggest and most significant event showcasing Scotland globally outside of Scotland itself.
Its timing is also significant: taking place around April 6, it intentionally coincides around the anniversary of the Declaration of Arbroath – a document often cited as an influence on the United States’ own Declaration of Independence – and acknowledges the Scottish heritage of many of America’s Founding Fathers.
Since 2002, I have been fortunate enough to attend the event some six times and I am looking forward to taking part this year once again. In 2023 and 2024, as chair of the Scottish Affairs Committee, I took its members to New York as part of our inquiry into promoting Scotland internationally.
What we found was a Scottish diaspora eager to make positive connections and opportunities for Scottish businesses to effectively utilise their Scottish credentials. There is massive interest and affection for Scotland in the US and what we found is that it is up to us to take advantage of that goodwill.
Jack McConnell’s unforgettable ‘mini-kilt’
Tartan Week is organised and run by a group of committed and dedicated representatives of our diaspora. Essentially co-ordinated by the National Tartan Day New York Committee, it is delivered through a network of Scottish-American organisations. Tapping into the commercial opportunities, sponsors such as whisky companies like Laphroaig, Bowmore and Auchentoshan are there, as well as obligatory Scottish companies like Walkers and Barbour.
Because of its significance, it is no surprise that Tartan Week attracts politicians from both the Scottish and UK parliaments. The Scottish Government has rightly financially supported the event and every year you will find an enthusiastic assortment of Scottish higher education institutions, business interests and cultural organisations.
Because of this eclectic collection of politicians and celebrities, there is inevitably the accompanying press attention and headlines. Who could forget the famous Jack McConnell ‘mini-kilt’ or Alex Salmond’s ‘Dressed to Kilt’ Stetson?
Dressed to Kilt, in its pomp, attracted US-based celebrities such as Gerald Butler, Brian Cox and Mike Myers and introduced a welcome touch of glamour. To this day, Dressed to Kilt remains a central feature of any Tartan Week celebrations.
Our St Patrick’s Day ambition
Regardless of all of this effort, Tartan Week does not come close to the impact of Ireland’s St Patrick’s Day celebrations. While Scottish heritage is claimed by up to 25 million Americans, there remains a distinctly Scottish reticence to loudly proclaim it in the streets.
The Irish American diaspora just seem to be more clearly organised and have managed to have a political and cultural reach that we just cannot emulate. Even with a President who is half-Scottish, it is the Irish who still have the ears of the politicians on Capitol Hill.
Growing Tartan Week into something akin to St Patrick’s Day must now be the mission and ambition. That said, it is growing and every year Tartan Week evolves and develops.
This year we have the added excitement of all eyes being on the US as our national football team prepares to take their place in the World Cup for the first time since 1998. Scots will be bringing their customary noise, colour and good humour and the Scottish diaspora will be there to welcome them.
With all our historic symbols and icons, Tartan Week is successful because it refuses to be defined as a dusty exercise in heritage. Amongst the bagpipes and the tartan, it is forward-looking, commercially savvy, and unapologetically ambitious.
It is one of the few events that successfully uses our historic symbology and turns it into something new. It is, in effect, soft power in a kilt: part festival, part networking event, part national shop window.
Tartan Week in New York succeeds because it celebrates identity without becoming parochial. It turns the diaspora into a living, breathing, economically useful network. In short, Tartan Week works because it has taken the idea of Scottishness, put it on Sixth Avenue, and given it a microphone.
Pete Wishart is the SNP MP for Perth and Kinross-shire
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