The 154th Victoria Highland Games & Celtic Festival is officially underway at Topaz park this long weekend.
It's the largest Scottish cultural event in its history and features 3 full days of games starting Saturday.
Organizer Jim Maxwell says the top ten throwers from across Canada are coming in for the CSAF Canadian Men’s Championships.
"This year we're holding the Canadian Championships and the winner of that will have an automatic berth into the World Championships which is a big deal."
The Victoria Highland Games competition is considered one of the premiere Heavy Events competitions in the world. "Some of the athletes are up to 350 pounds and 6 foot 8 inches tall, and they're all ripped they're all very strong and they take this very seriously."
Sponsored by Lighthouse Brewing Company, the International Heavy Events Challenge runs both Saturday and Sunday with the Amateur divisions competing in the mornings (8am-noon) and the Professional divisions taking the field in the afternoons (noon-close).
The Victoria Strength Challenge (Strongman) will be contested on Monday.
This is the largest Scottish cultural event in Canada and 1 of only 3 full day Games in Western Canada.
Maxwell says over 25,000 people are expected at Topaz Park this long weekend.
Events started for a full week prior to the Games & Celtic Festival to enable a 10-day celebration of Scottish and Celtic arts, music and sport kicking off with the Tartan Parade through downtown Victoria;
including the Kilted Golf Tournament, Tilted Kilt Pubcrawl, Games Concert featuring The Odds and Guests and Torchlight Clan ceremony which went Friday night.
The 155th-anniversary games will be held here in Victoria next year and will feature David Webster’s Scottish Heavy Events World Championships, this will bring the very best of the best from across the globe to Victoria.