At one tent a sign asked "Popped a pleat? Kilt repairs while you wait," and at another, a bumper sticker said "If it's not Scottish, it's not much."

It was the 17th annual Anne Arundel Scottish Festival and Highland Games, held at the Anne Arundel County Fairgrounds in Crownsville.

About 250 drummers and pipers from 14 Scottish bands took to the field to open the ceremonies, causing the audience of about 3,500 people to take to their feet and applaud.

The day was so sunny and beautiful, the Rev. Ernest R.D. Smart, described the day in his invocation as "an introduction to heaven."

Others, however, were attracted to more earthly sights.

"The kilts! The guys look grand in their kilts," said Jennie Bishop of Crownsville, a volunteer at the festival. "It's the stockings that make the kilts."

Ms. Bishop's husband, Luke McCuskur, said it was the bagpipes that made the festival special.

"People just love the bagpipes," he said.

Dozens of tents dotted the fairgrounds, as clans such as "Johnston/e" had displays on their families' history and lore.

Lee Cattell, a descendant of the Johnstone family, explained that upon arriving in America, the clan's name developed new spellings, including "Johnson" and "Johnston."

David Crookston, a member of the Washington Area Folk Harp Society who has studied the harp in Edinburgh, Scotland, demonstrated the instrument by playing "Greensleeves," a ballad from the 1500s.

"You can play anything on these harps," Mr. Crookston said.

Nearby, at the Robert Burns Society of Annapolis, Donald McGlew offered a drawing, where the prize was a free ticket to the organization's annual dinner on Jan. 27 honoring the great poet's birthday.

"As an English teacher, I can say that all great poets strike a universal chord - love, death and passion," Mr. McGlew said in explaining Burns' enduring fame, more than 200 years after his death.

The banquet will include haggis, a traditional Scottish food made from a sheep's "pluck" - heart, liver, and lungs - minced with onion, oatmeal, suet, spices, and salt, and boiled in the animal's stomach.

Burns went so far as to write a poem about the staple of highland diet, which he called the "Great chieftain o' the puddin-race!"

Scottish highlanders were a rugged lot, eating not only basic country fare, but creating rustic games that tested strength.

In one competition yesterday, Steve Pulcinella, a 42-year-old power lifter and gym owner from Philadelphia, threw a 42-pound weight over a bar set 19 feet above the ground.

The world record in the "weight over bar" competition is 20 feet 1 inch, so Mr. Pulcinella, who is of Italian descent, requested the bar raised to 20 feet, 3 inches.

As allowed under competition rules, he had three tries, and each throw went above the bar, but hit the upright coming down and bounced the wrong way.

"I'll get it eventually," Mr. Pulcinella said of the world record. "I hit 20 (feet) earlier this year."

The men were not alone in these feats.

Lori McCallister from Glen Burnie, and her daughter, Jessica, who is 14 and a freshman at Old Mill High School, participated in several events.

In one competition, Lori McCallister threw an 8-pound stone 24 feet, while Jessica, competing in a different age group, threw it 18 feet 10 inches.

"If I win today, I get a Slurpee and peach rings," Jessica McCallister said.

"This is only our second competition," said Lori McCallister, who works for the State Highway Administration. "We go out on weekends to a park and train there."

Highland games are held in various areas each year, and yesterday's gathering was the last in this region for this season, organizers said.

Festival President Mike Wolfe, a retired economist, said it takes the all-volunteer group a year to organize the one-day event.

"I haven't seen half the events here, except in passing," he said of how much there was to see.

"I love it, you couldn't ask for a more perfect day," he said. "God is obviously a Scotsman."