HANCOCK - Hundreds of people flocked to the Houghton County Fairgrounds during the weekend to experience the Celtic Festival hosted by the Celtic Quarter of the Copper Country.
Saturday, dozens of spectators watched a rugby game featuring the Michigan Technological University rugby team and waited for the Highland Games, featuring professional athletes, to begin.
Sara Hilgers, of Stevens Point, Wis., was one of the many participants practicing in the baseball field before the competition began.
"My strongest event is the stone put," said Hilgers, who has been participating in events like the Highland Games for three years now.
Other events in the popular Highland Games Saturday included the hammer toss, distance weights, distance height, sheaf toss and caber toss.
While Hilgers practiced on the sidelines before the games began, members of the Celtic Quarter were looking for their first "victim" to arrest for the mock dungeon.
"We have our first prisoner," keeper Diane Gutshall shouted pointing at Houghton Police Chief John Donnelly in the jail.
Prompted by Gutshall, Donnelly did his best rendition of "I'm A Little Teapot" for the crowd of rugby players and spectators in order to leave jail.
Vendors lined the ballfield Saturday during the Celtic Festival selling items such as honey, candles, stained glass and clothes.
The Friends of the Portage Lake District Library were on hand with books to share culture with others.
"If someone comes up and says they want to investigate family names, there's information about different clan and tartans of Scotland and Celtic information," said Mary Fran Desrochers.
The table also had a large, colorful map and a human-sized knight in armor.
"People have been coming over and looking up things," she said.
Also present at the festival were livestock brought by Steve Palosaari of Chassell that included American Highland Beef Cattle.
Cheryl Hall, vice president of the Celtic Quarter of the Copper Country, said she was pleased with the turnout during the weekend. Friday, Hall said they had about 150 people in attendance who came out to see the amateur Highland Games and the Ceilidh, a traditional Gaelic social gathering.
"I performed in the Highland Games Friday," she said.
