Grandfather Mountain Highland Games — Attraction in Newland

A great Highland experience but it did have some Festival issues. For starters the parking was confusing if you did not in great detail study the maps and the schedule, and even they were a little confusing over the Caldwell lot that didn't exist. The parking for the first night was only at the high school and you had to be aware of that fact. It was kind of the same for the last day where they specifically told you you could only use the two lots that were designated to be open. Lots were quite full at times as in any festival. Especially when the parking was at a perimeter area that required busing to the main site. I did find $20 a day for 2 people for 4 days to be a bit excessive for the busing but I understand it was not a cheap thing for them to do. Including rental of the Lots you were parked in. I would have suggested perhaps a 4-day bus pass at a reduced rate but I believe the organizers and the concession for the bus charged what they thought was a fair rate especially when you include a parking fee . We bought our tickets months in advance on the website, and had no problems, it was very concise as to what you were getting and advised the parking information was going to be priced much later, and it was. We made it a point to get there as early as possible most days and leave before closing time, to give us time to get back get the car and go back up to the parking for the late day concert. Concerts were great, nice band mix and some food available there, but a bit limited. We avoided most of the problems. I don't believe we ever waited more than 40 minutes at any part of the parking/BUSING experience. The food was expensive, as in any good Festival it's going to be, there were many options, some authentic, some Carnival, everything we tried was quite good; and we have eaten in Scotland, the Highland breakfast and meat pies were very authentic and very good, and the breakfast was quite reasonably priced. The placement of the clan family tents was definitely a viewing problem as was the placement of the three tents on the field, you did have to move around quite a bit to see everything you might want to see. My understanding was there were 32,000 people there on Saturday which is a record for the games, and that is always going to bring issues. This is been a bucket list item for us for years , we had a good idea what to expect , and where you were going was to be a bit on the expensive side, and have some Festival issues, but we planned for and we're very pleased with the entire experience. The authentic Scottish cultural dancing music and athletic events were just awesome, as were the representations by all of the many clan families. Some very informative lectures and informational talks...

Terrible experience. Having to ride on the shuttle to get here instead of driving your own car only to get to the road to go up the mountain and learning from the bus driver that the shuttles aren't allowed on the main road so we had to go off roading up the mountain shows how little regard is given to the paying customers of the games. The athletic field is surrounded mainly by the clan tents so if you are lucky enough to find a place to sit, you can't see much of anything. The dancing tents are blocking our view of the athletic events. We waited over an hour in line to get food and because of the setup of the field and the food tents, you can't see anything going on while you wait. We paid so much money and as a customer that isn't Scottish and came to the games to enjoy the events, I feel like we are completely disregarded as useful other than to take in our hard earned money, to the event. We will never be returning. We could have had a much more enjoyable experience with our friends and family, which this is their first time attending a highland games event, doing something different in the mountains of NC. Stone Mountain is a completely different Highland Games experience. It is actually enjoyable to attend and you can actually watch what is going on. I am unsure though if some of our newbies in our party will ever attend due to the awf...

Terrible experience with the parking and shuttle situation. On the Friday coming back from the games, we waited over 1.5hrs (in the blazing sun) to get on the bus, then sat in traffic for an hour to get back to our car. On Saturday we arrived at the sugar mountain shuttle/parking and there were over a 100 people on line for the shuttle bus. Then it was an hour ride to get to the games in the traffic. Overall each day was consumed with about 3-4 hours just going to and from the games. Such a disappointment. The clans tents were looped around the arena, not leaving much area for viewing. There were no beer tents. The bands were hidden away in the Groves, nice shady areas but not enough room for viewing. Should’ve been on a big stage in the open. We had been looking forward to this trip for such a long time only to be totally let down by the parking and transport situation. We will not...