The Tulsa Forum by TulsaNow

ScotFest is this weekend. I'm here now. The refurbished park is nice, but for some reason the festival is half the size it was last year? The music selection and games are still set up well, and that's the heart of this festival, but I'm surprised in the drop off of tent vendors from last year. The fact that it's Friday and the impending rain could have something to do with it I guess.

Something feels off though... The setup isn't good - the music tents are way too close together. Apparently the cheapest beer is $7 and the only soda anyone is selling is $3 irn bru from a single vendor. There's lots of expensive lemonade and iced tea, but I don't think anyone is selling water? Very weird...

I think this is still worth it for the $5 parking + $12 ticket just for the music and games, but they need to go back on a few things regarding beverage offerings and setup.

While reading your note, I was planning to head over there this afternoon - rain or no.  Then you got to the prices... Nope.

I should add that I did end up thoroughly enjoying myself last night. I like the music, and the tv tent with the football games on is always a nice touch. I think what was really missing was all the clans and the marching groups, which should be there today. Plus the games of course.

But yeah, unlike last year I didn't drink at all due to the price.

Cannons were out there today when I rode through.  I was impressed, they allowed trail traffic to pass through.  Totally unexpected.

They were apparently quick to respond to criticism. They had cheaper beer their today ($5 16oz domestics), and a pop-up booth selling soda and water.

With the clans and competitions in full swing the festival really filled out more. I still think they could have spaced some things out better, but that's a small gripe.

I'd like to see this festival get bigger. Besides the improvements to the park, not a whole lot has changed. The last two years have been a lot of the same vendors and musicians. I think they need to spend more on marketing, and bring in some bigger name things/acts that are actually from Scotland in order to create more of a draw. There were a few people here from OKC today, and I'm sure we could get a lot more.

We headed that way just to see the sights on a fine day. I'm happy to walk so we avoided paying $5 to park. But at the gate it was $12 each, when we asked about food and drink we were advised it was probably another $15-20 each. It wasn't worth $50+ for the hour or so we intended to hang around so we walked back to our car and never actually went in.

If we wanted to spend an afternoon there looking around, fine. We were just looking for an excuse to get out of the house for an hour or so in the Am.