The Great Canadian Kilt Skate 2025

By Andy MacCulloch

Word is out on planning for this year’s Great Canadian Kilt Skate. We’ve been in touch with 20 past community participants and are coaching another 15 who have expressed an interest. It looks like a great season ahead!

Many communities are a wee bit wary of committing to organizing a Kilt Skate. Key to our coaching is the following advice: keep it simple, start small and have fun. You don’t necessarily have to create a big promotion or invest money in renting ice and entertainment. Start by getting everybody interested in attending your local free skate, wear some tartan and ideally find a few hearty souls to wear a kilt. Find some Celtic music and you’re ready to go! Make it more fun by adding flags, maybe a Highland dancer and even better a piper. It’s a great way to get out with friends and neighbours.

Our past participants and reigning and past Kilt Skate Capital communities have built up their kilt skate ideas and increased attendance; ideas like a band in the home players’ bench. Wonderful outdoor rinks. Multiple pipers and dancers. But the common denominator remains simply planning and having a good time together in the cold winter months.

One of the things we are also encouraging this year is that the community find a local charity to support and do a wee bit of fundraising at the same time. It’s amazing to think how many more people may come out to support a good cause. And everybody feels great about helping out. So, if you might want to include this element, look for a youth hockey team, Highland dancers, traveling pipers or a more mainstream charity. They all need as much help as they can get.

We look forward to hearing from all communities when you find a date. We will post a blog and have a landing spot for those looking for more information. In around Ottawa so far, we have kilt skates planned in Petawawa, Ottawa and Glengarry South and hopefully more to come. See you out on the ice!