Celtic Aside – Green Wave Washes Over Westgate

Clean Show attendees staying at the Westgate Hotel and Casino frequently encountered large groups of soccer fans from the Celtic Football Club, like those shown above. Many were clad in the team's trademark green-striped shirts and related sportswear items during their annual convention.  

Clean Show attendees from TRSA and TCATA who stayed at the Westgate Las Vegas Resort Casino, one of several specially designated hotels where show participants received discounted rates, found themselves sharing the bars and other public spaces of the hotel with several hundred high-energy soccer fans who’d come from Scotland and Ireland to attend the Annual Convention of the Celtic Football Club (CFC).

Founded in 1887, the CFC was established to help alleviate poverty among thousands of Irish immigrants in West Glasgow, Scotland. In the years since it’s developed a huge following there as one of Scotland’s largest professional soccer clubs. Fans young, old and in between gather in different cities each year to celebrate their team – many by wearing the CFC’s distinctive green horizontal-striped shirts and other team regalia.

Clean Show attendees moving from the Westgate to the Las Vegas Convention Center next door had to contend with CFC fans gathered in the hotel public spaces at all hours of the day and night. Often attendees would find fans singing songs dedicated to the team. Various floors of the hotel  were decked out with banners celebrating the organization. CFC formal activities during their weeklong celebration from June 4-11 included a pool party, a golf outing and a gala dinner dance. There also was a private screening of Celtic Soul a 50th-anniversary documentary about the team’s 1967 squad that won the European Cup match against Inter Milan in Lisbon, Portugal. CFC fans revere that feat to this day. A large banner near the front entrance to the Westgate showed a picture of the ’67 team heading onto the field with a caption underneath that read “Walk with the Lions.”

The hundreds of high-spirited, green-clad CFC fans added to the festive atmosphere already in play by the Clean Show. While occasionally boisterous, the CFC crowd didn’t interfere with other guests, nor did they cause any problems to our knowledge. However, their presence did add to the color and excitement of the week as their convention schedule overlapped with that of the Clean Show. Click here to learn more about the club and its activities.