Festivals abound this weekend in Albuquerque

May 4—If you planned your Saturday just right, you could do it all: sample Japanese cuisine, take in a whirling dervish ceremony and see strongmen — and women — flipping giant logs.

Three cultural festivals were in full swing this weekend around Albuquerque: the Rio Grande Valley Celtic Festival at Balloon Fiesta Park, the Turkish Festival at the Raindrop Foundation Cultural Center and the Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Festival at the National Museum of Nuclear Science and History.

The Turkish Festival touted cuisine such as gyros and baklava with sufi whirling — an active meditation in which performers in long gowns spin in circles. The Asian American festival offered attendees the chance to make origami and see ikebana, the ancient Japanese art of flower arrangement.

Both of those events ended Saturday afternoon.

The Celtic Festival, which continues Sunday, was just getting started.

The sound of bagpipes filled the air as Chad Thompson thrust his pitchfork into the sheaf, a straw-stuffed bag, and bowed low. Then he swung back and forth, like a pendulum, using momentum to fling the bag high overhead.

The 16-pound sheaf cleared the bar and, with that, Thompson set a new record: 34 feet, 6 inches.

"It feels pretty damn good," Thompson told the Journal, brandishing a big smile amid the midday glow of sweat.

Thompson said it "was definitely an improvement" over the previous record of 34 feet, also set by him. He said he was a rugby player 16 years ago when he "saw people throwing things" at a Celtic festival and was hooked.

"That's the end of the story," Thompson said before a fellow competitor walked up and asked if he would sign his pitchfork. He added, "it's an absolute riot."

Before that, Thompson and the others had thrown a giant stone and hammer, in separate events, among other feats of strength.

Lara Thompson, Thompson's wife, and her friend Heidi Rothenberg said they enjoy the Caber Toss most.

"It's the weirdest, I think," Lara Thompson said, adding it also takes a mastery of balance and a "really deep" squat."

Rothenberg added, "It takes an extreme amount of athleticism to actually throw a telephone pole and have it flip straight over, at 12 o'clock."

The festival has become a family affair for the Thompsons. His parents, both in their early 80s, are tossing sheaf, hammers and cabers just like their son.

"I guess we like it enough that we've kept at it all this time," said mother Donna Thompson. "I think I'm the oldest woman in the world (to compete), but I'm not sure."

On the other side of the field, Chris Acklen and Tim Abell watched the women's caber toss or, as Abell put it, log-tossing.

"We're just taking it all in," Acklen said, having been to the festival last year and dragging Abell along. The food was another draw for him, Abell said, as he reminisced on a burger he ate earlier.

"Technically, you could call it a Celtic burger," he said with a laugh. But for Acklen, the sounds are what she loved most.

"The bagpipes — I had to come for the bagpipes," she said. Abell agreed.

"We're both part Irish," Acklen said, "it just runs deep."