Stepping up to the plate and meeting the moment in uncertain and tumultuous times takes a lot of strength. Luckily for Joshua Mackintosh, strength is his stock in trade.

A well-reputed chef in the Boston area, Mackintosh recalls when he was inspired to a different calling.

“The inspiration really came from necessity,” he reflects in an email exchange with Celtic Life International. “After the Covid-19 pandemic hit, the Celtic athletic community took big hits and we lost festivals. Sadly, some festivals still have not recovered.

“At the time, a group of athletes decided to band together to start our own Games and bring back the sorely missed camaraderie and community. We also wanted to honour those who came before us, and who kept the Highland Games and Celtic festivals alive for so many years. Particularly, by highlighting those individuals with ‘no fame.’”

Hence the name No Fame Games – a moniker first given to Mackintosh’s own backyard Celtic sports festival he began in 2021 to fill the void left by the shuttered, closed, or delayed Celtic festivals affected by the pandemic.

Since then, the event has taken on a life of its own. This year’s event is especially exciting, as it will feature the inaugural Celtic Strength World Championships, a contest of champions that aims to highlight the feats of strength Highland Games and other Celtic events are famous for all under one roof (or tent).

“Our main event’s core mandate is to unify what many people call ‘fringe’ or ‘niche’ traditions all under one banner,” Mackintosh boasts. “To unite the diaspora in strength, through strength. This will be the first time in history that all of these various Celtic strength traditions will be together on one field on the same day…”

“We will host two Celtic Wrestling Championships: the first ever North American Scottish Backhold Wrestling Championships, with officials flying in from Scotland to sanction the event, and the return of Irish Collar and Elbow Wrestling to New England in the Northeast Championships. We will have experts in Bataireacht Irish Stickfighting, Bareknuckle Boxing, Catch Wrestling, and Scottish full-staff fighting with us. We will have Stones of Strength, with legendary figures in the Celtic Stonelifting world on site.”

As Mackintosh vows that they’ve courted the best and brawniest in each competition to participate in the Championships, in the same breath, he promises that gold medal bona fides are not required to test your mettle.

“We will have an open format, removing nepotism and favouritism. If you want to throw your hat in the ring, do it. Register and compete! That is how the Scots do it and we want to carry that tradition on here in the USA too.”

The timing couldn’t be better, either, as Massachusetts will be hosting a plethora of sports fans in June, when the No Fame Games go down.

“As some have already figured out, June 13 is very significant because it is also the date Scotland returns to the World Cup, only 25 minutes away from our venue. Boston is expecting around 50,000 Scots to come into town to celebrate, and we are positioned to be an anchor for the Tartan Army and Celtic diaspora to celebrate Scottish and Celtic strength during this serendipitous alignment. How can you celebrate Scotland in Boston June 13? Highland Games by day, Tartan Army party by night.”

Mackintosh worries that he might be coming off boastful, even braggadocios – that he makes this look easy. The truth is, he says, that it takes a tremendous amount of work to keep things running smoothly.

“It’s a journey of strength in itself, and one of self-discovery. That is what is great about it. It’s about growth, and through growth we attract the right people to us who see and believe in the mission.

“When you see the look on a youth’s face after they’ve lifted a stone over bar that challenged them and they hear the crowd roar; when you see an athlete who has trained for years to break a world record finally achieve that; or when you look at your team during a very successful event and you all take in how impactful it is what you are doing. The rewards are not our purpose – we really do this because it is needed, and it is the right thing to do.”

Even though it’s not effortless, Mackintosh and his team are very good at what they do. So much so, that there’ll be no rest for them after the Celtic Strength World Championships come to a close this summer; they’ve been asked to bring that same gumption to helping other Celtic events kick up their Games.

“We have quite a bit going on this year. No Fames Games was onboarded by the Oklahoma ScotFest to take over their athletic department, so we are excited leading up to that. Then we are also building a new CeltFest in New Hampshire, in collaboration with an old fort from the French-Indian war set for October.”

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