The Aviemore Gathering Outline Programme

Bigger and better than ever before the Aviemore Gathering organised by the Tartan Army will feature more live football, more live music and more family fun than ever before. Showcasing the very best of the Scottish Highlands this event is aimed at bringing a little bit of brightness to football fans from across the world whose team didn’t catch the plane to South Africa.

The outline programme is mapped out below with something happening From Thursday evening right through to Monday morning. So whether you’re looking for a two, three or four night break Aviemore in the first week of July could be your first option.

As more details emerge of the full programme we’ll keep you up to date through the website, newsletter, Facebook and the blog.

Tickets will be available to buy online from mid February so keep your eyes open. Tickets this year will not only give access to The Cairngorm Hotel events but also give discount to the two Osprey Arean live events and great deals at visitor attractions thorugh the area including Rothiemurchus Estate, The Funicular Railway, Landmark Theme Park, The Highland Wildlife park, Loch Insh Watersports and more.

Registration for this year is £15 per adult and £7.50 for children and under 5s are free and entitles members to discounted tickets as outlined above and free entry to The Cairngorm Stage Area.

Outline Programme of Events

THURSDAY 1ST JULY

Registration opens from 4pm through til 9pm 

Evening entertainment in the Cairngorm Hotel in Aviemore with Andy Chung

FRIDAY 2ND JULY

Registration open from 10am - 10pm !

Get your tickets for "Get Steamin" which is one of the most popular events of the weekend.

A nostalgic trip on the Strathspey Steam Railway with a Ceilidh on the platform of Glenbogle station!! The clue to the event is in the title !!!

4pm - First World Cup Quarter Final of the weekend

8.30pm - Second World Cup Quarter Final of the weekend

10.30pm -   Tartan Army Rocks Off – watch out for the announcement of live bands to rock the night away with followed by Jim Marshall (who plays all our favourite songs)

SATURDAY 3RD JULY

10.30am - THE "KILTED 5-A-SIDE WORLD CUP  and Kilted keep-uppie competition with the world champion. Can Turriff Tartan Army retain their trophy?
9.00am – Tartan Army Classic Golf – 18 hole stableford event.
8am -12noon - Organised fly fishing competition on the River Spey
10am – Organised Tartan Army Mountaineering to the top of Cairngorm (okay the funicular railway will take us up most of the way but it sounds healthy!)
10am til 4pm - Organised Helicopter flights around Strathspey and the Cairngorms
12 noon - Battle re-enactments from the famous Wallace Society 
4pm - Third World Cup Quarter Final of the weekend
8.30pm - Fourth World Cup Quarter Final of the weekend
1030pm -  The Aviemore Ferry Night – watch out for the very best in traditional  and contemporary live favourites with Scottish music to dance the night away to live in The Renfrew Ferry tradition masquerading as The Osprey Arena

SUNDAY 4TH JULY

12 noon – The traditional Clan March thru Aviemore village to the Tartan Army Highland Games and battle re-enactments complete with beer tent, Tossing the Caber, Hammer Throwing, Cheerleaders, Tug of War, Bouncy Castle and fun activities for all the family.

5pm - Live music on the Cairngorm Hotel stage

10pm – Farewell Entertainment in Aviemore

MONDAY 5TH JULY

For those still around enjoy a Farewell Hangover Brunch at The Cairngorm Hotel before departing Aviemore.

Keep up to date with live information on the Facebook Fan Page or on the Tartan Army Blog

Six Nations Rugby Gets Underway

Quite poignant this year as Scotland launch their camapign against France at Murrayfield tomorrow. Not sure what the SRU have in mind to mark the life of Bill McLaren but whatever it is it won't be matched by the hundreds of thousands of individual thoughts held by Rugby's own Tartan Army tomorrow.

I knew nothing about rugby (I'm pretty sure our school didn't even own a funny shaped ball) but what I did learn was from sitting down at 2pm on a Saturday in January to watch live rugby on the BBC with Bill McLaren the memorable bacground to it all. Those were the days; massive TV audiences, muddy pitches, darkness falling (no floodlights remember?) and those magnificent tones - and ALWAYS a balanced view of the game whether Scotland won or lost.

So the thoughts hovering around Murrayfield tomorrow will be tinged with the memory of a true broadcasting legend and perhaps the passion may just convert into an opening victory.

If you're looking for some of the stats that Bill McLaren may have imparted you could do worse than a trip to the page for tomorrow's match on the Six Nations website.

It's Draw Time Again...

It's time for that wonderful bi-annual experience...

Every second year, the names are shoved into the proverbial (and increasingly sophisticated) hat and Scotland are drawn out yet again in the Group of Death.

What difference will this draw make? What wonderful trips to highly priced Euro zone countries can we look forward to?

What about something different this year for Euro 2012. I mean is there really any need to be drawn against  Lithuania again?

I'm going for easyJet and Ryanair destinations so the draw needs to be Germany, Sweden, SCOTLAND, Belgium and from pot five it'll have to be Montenegro. If we're unlucky enough to have another game I think it would have to then be Andorra for the duty free shopping and there's always flights to Toulouse and Girona.

So that's it by Monday morning the Record will be running a headline saying something crass like "Scots in Pole Position After Euro Draw." and we'll have to search for another Tartan Army single for Children in Need...God Forbid.

Anyway here's the basic info required -

Draw on Sky Sports from 10.15am on Sunday. The nine group winners plus the top runner-up team will go through.  The remaining 8 teams will take part in a home and away playoff on the 11/12th and 15th November 2011. The pots are as follows:

POT ONE: Spain, Germany, Netherlands, Italy, England, Croatia, Portugal, France, Russia 

POT TWO: Greece, Czech Republic, Sweden, Switzerland, Serbia, Turkey, Denmark, Slovakia, Romania 

POT THREE: Israel, Bulgaria, Finland, Norway, Republic of Ireland, Scotland, Northern Ireland, Austria, Bosnia-Herzegovina 

POT FOUR:
Slovenia, Latvia, Hungary, Lithuania, Belarus, Belgium, Wales, F.Y.R. Macedonia, Cyprus 

POT FIVE:
Montenegro, Albania, Estonia, Georgia, Moldova, Iceland, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Liechtenstein 

POT SIX:
Azerbaijan, Luxembourg, Malta, Faroe Islands, Andorra, San Marino

Euro 2012, will be the 14th European Championship for national football teams and the final tournament will be jointly hosted Poland and Ukraine between 8 June and 1 July 2012. This will be the last European Championship finals in which only 16 nations will participate, with Euro 2016 having 24 competing nations.