Organize a kilt skate

Organizing a Great Canadian Kilt Skate in your community is easy. Basically you need a few things:

• An ice surface -- preferably outdoors;

• Skaters and others looking for a good time;

• A few skaters willing to wear kilts, tartan and other Scottish regalia.

• A bagpiper and/or Celtic music

• Distribute the historical video to explain what a Kilt Skate is all about or the shorter videos outlining who kilt skates and what a Kilt Skate is like.

  • Great Canadian Kilt Skate Story

  • Why kilt skate?

  • What’s a Kilt Skate like?

  • Kilt Skate 2022-2023 Highlights

Contact our National Kilt Skate Director, Andy MacCulloch for additional information and details.

Best practices

The great success of the Great Canadian Kilt Skate has been due to the added touches that make for a memorable event. Some of these include:

• Choose a date where you’ve got a good chance of cold weather and hard ice – statistically, the coldest week of the year is the end of January, beginning of February.

• Get the word out to your members and networks. Social media has been a powerful tool for Kilt Skates.

• Look for partners in your community: Highland dance companies; Scottish country dancing clubs; curling clubs; hockey teams; highland regiments with bagpipers; Scottish pubs. Look for partner organizations that can add some youth and exuberance to the festivities!

• Provide hot chocolate and a birthday cake – the original Kilt Skates were organized to celebrate the birthday of Sir John A. Macdonald, born January 11, 1815, in Glasgow.

• Set up a table with information on your organization -- and a sign-up sheet for new members and volunteers.

• Decorate with Scottish bunting and regalia. This means Scottish flags, colours. Tartan!

• Contact the Protocol Office at City Hall and have them proclaim your Kilt Skate day as the official Scotland-in-Canada Day in your city.

• Arrange a venue where people can celebrate (and warm up!) with an after-party: Is there a Scottish pub near your ice surface? Ask them if they’d like to help out!

• Media publicity: Newspaper, radio and television love the idea of people going skating in their kilts. 

• Social media presence: Website, Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, MeetUp – put them all to work!

• Use the promotional material provided by the Scottish Society of Ottawa to promote your even. Customized branded promotional ads are available to promote your Kilt Skate and be part of the Great Canadian Kilt Skate. 

• Consider fundraising for your own special community cause. There are great tools to be used to help you raise funds easily. Experience tells us that if you do something for a good cause people will embrace it. It makes it more worthwhile and fun!

• Stay in touch with your kilt skate colleagues in other partner cities. There’s a good-natured rivalry over who gets the most skaters out on the coldest day, and at the end of the season, we'll declare one city to be the Kilt Skate Capital of Canada!

• Contact Andy MacCulloch, Director of Communications and Kilt Skate for the Scottish Society of Canada. We can help you get started, build on your ideas and provide resources to help you succeed. Happy Kilt Skating!