RADFORD – An anticipated crowd of more than 8,000 will gather on Radford University’s Moffett Field on Saturday, Oct. 3, to celebrate the region’s rich Scots-Irish heritage at the 14th annual Radford Highlanders Festival, a partnership between the City of Radford and the university.

With the university entering its centennial year, the weekend will provide opportunities to reflect on the area’s time-honored traditions and celebrate the school’s legacy of teaching and learning excellence. The inaugural Welcome Back Reunion coincides with the festival and is a unique tie-in to RU’s colorful history.

Vice President of Student Affairs and festival steering committee co-chair Norleen Pomerantz said festival weekend will be a fun time on campus.

Pomerantz says, “The Highlanders Festival is a wonderful combination of events that provide something for everyone. There will be music throughout the day featuring the sounds of Teribus, Jig or Not, Nicky Tams, War Pipe, Virginia Highlands Pipes and Drums Band and Appalachian Highlanders Pipes and Drums Band. Visitors can also enjoy traditional heavyweight games, a gathering of Scottish clans, food and craft vendors and children’s activities that include an augmented reality game. And that’s just on campus. Downtown, there will be the Taste of Radford on Friday night and on Saturday morning a pancake breakfast and parade. To keep things going, Family Weekend will be occurring and includes theatre and dance performances, presentations of faculty/student research, a fashion show, bowling and billiards competitions, and always the favorite – the family dog show.”

Admission to the festival is free. Patrons making a $1 donation to the festival will receive a commemorative sticker as a token of appreciation for their support. Admission fees apply to the Friday night tasting and Saturday morning pancake breakfast.

(Pictured at right: Teribus, one of the bands scheduled to perform at this year's Highlanders Festival.)

Names of festival attendees who complete an opinion survey will have their names entered in a random drawing for a historical Radford University mailbox bank valued at $100. The mailboxes were handcrafted by volunteers in RU’s Facilities Management division and features the original glass doors from the front of mailboxes in Walker Hall.

Festival updates will appear in upcoming issues of RU Today. To learn more, visit www.radford.edu/festival or call Bonnie Roberts Erickson in the Office of University Relations at (540) 831-5804. For more information on the tasting and pancake breakfast, e-mail festival steering committee co-chair Laurie Buchwald at lbuchwald@verizon.net or call Main Street Radford Director Becky Haupt at (540) 731-3656.