Leave it to Jackalope to find yet another reason to throw a party. As many of you already know, Jackalope loves a good tradition and our Robbie Burns Day and Highland Games is chocked full of it! For those of you that prefer prose to poetry, a little background might be of use, so here’s why we throw this party and also, who the heck Robbie Burns is.
Throwback to this very day in 1759, the village of Alloway, Scotland was gifted a new member – Robert Burns. He started out following the footsteps of his father by becoming a tenant farmer, but only carried some of that memory and knowledge through his life in the form of poems. After hanging up his work boots, he wrote a number of highly acclaimed poems throughout his life until finally he earned the title of the official national poet of Scotland.
Fast forward a few short years when founder and CEO, Bailey Spaulding, spent a semester in 2002 studying abroad in Scotland. The festivities stuck with Bailey, so in 2012 she decided to bring them right here to Jackalope and each year to follow. On February 2nd, you get to see what it’s all about. This year is the 8th Robbie Burns Day and Highland Games party, and this year we’ll be celebrating it at the Ranch! We’ll have a putting contest, a shot put, a handful of other highland games, and of course, a Scottish poetry reading. The games will be played to the tune of traditional Scottish music performed by the Jacobites by Name and we’ll be releasing the Alpin White IPA. There’s truly nothing like it, so be sure to come check it out any time between 2 and 5pm! For more information, please visit the Facebook event page here!
And with that, I’ll leave you with a quote from the late, great namesake of the party:
“O gude ale comes and gude ale goes;
Gude ale gars me sell my hose,
Sell my hose, and pawn my shoon-
Gude ale keeps my heart aboon!”