The Vashon Lowland Games, a family-friendly Scottish festival celebrating Celtic culture and folk music, Highland athletics, dancing, food and community connection, will take place from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 27, on a rolling, nine-acre private property located at 18876 Vashon Hwy SW.

The event is a fundraiser to help bring a full-scale Highland Games to Vashon in 2026, with organizers also planning to donate some proceeds to Vashon-Maury Land Trust and Claddagh Fund, the charitable foundation of the band Dropkick Murphys.

The day will notably include a chance to learn the caber toss with islander Jeff Thornton, a world champion Highland Games athlete and current world record holder in the weight-for-distance throw.

Thornton, also known on the island as the owner of Vashon Plumbing Services, is one of the co-founders of the event, along with islanders Amanda Kelly, of Swordfern Agency, and Christine Patterson, a well-known local singer and the owner of Night Owl Design Co., and property owner Dan Housholder.

Housholder, a retired service manager at Boeing, said that when he purchased his property several years ago, he “knew my mission was to learn this land and find out what it wanted to be.”

Describing his property as having the “rolling hills feel of the Scottish Highland,” Housholder set to work rehabbing its buildings and clearing blackberries for years, as he waited for it to speak to him.

“When Amanda, Christine and Jeff approached me about having a Highland Games here, I knew I had my answer and it was meant to be,” Housholder said.

During a recent interview, Housholder and the event’s founders walked the property where the event will take place, pointing out where games and musical events will take place, where beverages and food will be staged, and the place where a special area for children’s activities and quiet time will be set up.

Thornton also described the rigors of the ancient strongman competitions he and others will demonstrate at the Lowland Games: the caber toss, the stone put, Scottish hammer throw, and tug-of-wars, among other feats of physical prowress.

He described the atmosphere of competition at full-fledged Highland Games as celebratory and inclusive.

“It’s the best sportsmanship I’ve ever seen,” he said. “Because the better a person does, it pushes you to do better next time.”

Both Thornton and Patterson said they believed that both islanders and the wider public will embrace their idea for holding a full-fledged Highland Games event on Vashon, and that their Sept. 27 event would provide the proof of concept for that vision.

“There are so many people who want to celebrate their Scottish and Irish heritage here, locally and in the Pacific Northwest,” said Patterson.

Kelly, a Boston native who grew up attending Highland Games, also described her excitement to share some of the traditions and cultural spirit of the games at the Sept. 27 event, as well as full-fledged Highland games to come.

“There are truths in metaphor, poetry, and ancestry,” she said.

Visit vashonhighlandgames.com to find out more and purchase tickets at tinyurl.com/y6bm2pe2. Off-street parking for the event will be available in the K2 building’s parking lot, located across Vashon Highway from the event.