Icons comes of age in downtown New York

Celebrities and politicians attended a glittering awards night in the heart of New York as a highlight of Tartan Week. Dominic Roskrow reports

Crazy place, New York. Crazier still when it's packed from one end to the other with Scotsmen.

So it was for Tartan Week, which imposed itself on the Big Apple in some style. Pride of place in a week of activities was Scotland Magazine's own Icons of Scotland Awards, in association with VisitScotland, which took place on the official Tartan Day itself and attracted the First Minister of Scotland, Jack McConnell, an assortment of senior politicians, a gaggle of celebrities including a Hollywood star, and three generations of the Forbes family, themselves the embodiment of the unique relationship America enjoys with Scotland.

From the outset the week's proceedings had taken on a surreal note. The night before the Icons of Scotland dinner Sean Connery and Jack McConnell had stood side by side at the Dressed To Kilt event, supping whisky and acting as if they were best pals, despite a week of public and political wrangling in the press.

And by the day of the icons event itself everything had started to go truly weird.

Ever tried to buy kumquats in New York? And not just a few, but enough to make no less than 150 cocktails with?

Myself and the magazine's advertising manager Gordan Dundas felt like we were on some reality television challenge programme as we set out to do just that.

We found them in a Dominican Republic fruit and veg shop in a market in Chelsea, and left the staff in tears of laughter as we struggled out with every kumquat we could muster – which was not ne...

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• By : Dominic Roskrow
• In : Events
• Issue : 15
• Page : 30
• Words : 1,470