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BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS – JUNE 13: Scotland fans wear jerseys and play bagpipes as they wait outside The Dubliner bar before a FIFA World Cup watch party on June 13, 2026 in Boston, Massachusetts. (Photo by Mel Musto\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n
Mel Musto<\/p>\n
Getty Images<\/p>\n
Get ready, South Florida, for an invasion of 20,000 fun-loving, kilt-clad, bagpipe-playing Scotland World Cup supporters known as the Tartan Army.<\/p>\n
They will begin arriving over the weekend for Wednesday\u2019s game against Brazil at Hard Rock Stadium and will surely endear locals with their jovial spirit (No Scotland, No Party!), loud singing and philanthropic gestures, as they did in their takeover of the Boston area during the past week.<\/p>\n
They turned every street into a party, drank pubs dry, sang through traffic jams on 21 rented school buses, serenaded baseball fans at a Red Sox game and donated nearly $30,000 to local charities.<\/p>\n
They plan more of the same in South Florida.<\/p>\n
As of Friday morning, the Tartan Army had already purchased more than 8,000 tickets for Monday night\u2019s Marlins game against the Texas Rangers at loanDepot Park (coincidentally, the same team that played the Red Sox the night the Scots were at Fenway Park).<\/p>\n
Needless to say, the Scots also scouted out the South Florida pub scene, with the help of some locals, including David Steedman, 58, of Miramar, a native of Kirkcaldy, Scotland, who moved to Florida in the early 1990s and earlier this year launched a YouTube channel called Haggis305 to offer travel tips to Scottish World Cup tourists.<\/p>\n
Mickey Byrne\u2019s Irish Pub in Hollywood has been dubbed as a Tartan Army headquarters with pipe bands coming in from St. Augustine (\u201cAmerica\u2019s Oldest Celtic City\u201d) and local Scottish musicians performing. Five buses will leave from there headed to Hard Rock Stadium on game day and return to the bar for a post-match party.<\/p>\n
Bokamper\u2019s in Fort Lauderdale and Mickey Burke\u2019s in South Beach are also Tartan Army hubs, and 10 more buses will depart from those spots to the game.<\/p>\n
Many Scottish fans have booked Boston-to-Miami and Boston-to-Fort Lauderdale flights on Delta, and the airline is joining in the Tartan lovefest. Delta is giving priority boarding to any passenger wearing a kilt or traveling with bagpipes on Boston to Miami and Fort Lauderdale flights Saturday through Wednesday morning.<\/p>\n
On the Boston end, Delta is sending fans off Scottish-style on Saturday and Sunday with a kilted team member greeting travelers at the gate, live bagpipe music, shortbread and other Scottish snacks, and Scottish-inspired cocktails and mocktails in the Sky Club.<\/p>\n
Since this World Cup began, Boston was captivated by the Tartan Army, and videos of their frolics have gone viral all over the world.<\/p>\n
![\"Scotland](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/GettyImages-2280789961.jpg\" "\\"GettyImages-2280789961.jpg\\"")
Scotland fans pose for pictures ahead of the 2026 World Cup Group C football match between Haiti and Scotland at the Boston Stadium in Foxborough on June 13, 2026. (Photo by FRANCK FIFE \/ AFP via Getty Images) FRANCK FIFE AFP via Getty Images <\/p>\n
The Scots won their first game 1-0 against Haiti last Saturday, and the next day 6,000 members of the Tartan Army turned the Red Sox game into a sing-along the likes of which Bostonians had never seen before.<\/p>\n
The Red Sox had promoted the game as \u201cScotland Day\u201d and its mascot, Wally, wore a kilt for the occasion. After the \u201cThe Star-Spangled Banner,\u201d Scottish fans belted out the \u201cFlower of Scotland,\u201d which is the unofficial national anthem.<\/p>\n
By the end of the game, they had Red Sox fans singing along to \u201cWe\u2019ll Be Coming [Down the Road],\u201d \u201c500 Miles,\u201d \u201cNo Scotland, No Party\u201d and \u201cYes Sir, I Can Boogie.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cScottish fans go out of their way, when they travel, to be well-liked,\u201d said Steedman, who is helping organize Tartan Army activities during their South Florida stay.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey have a very strong image, they self-police themselves,\u201d he added. \u201cThey want to be loud. They want to be proud. They want people to know that they\u2019re in town, but they want to mix with the locals, have fun with the locals and just be part of the community for that short space of time that they visit these places. I seem them as ambassadors for Scotland.\u201d<\/p>\n
BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS – JUNE 14: Members of Scotland’s “Tartan Army” play outside of Fenway Park before a game between the Texas Rangers and the Boston Red Soxon June 14, 2026 in Boston, Massachusetts. (Photo by Paul Rutherford\/Getty Images) Paul Rutherford Getty Images <\/p>\n
Scotland captain Andy Robertson agreed.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey sing loudly, they sing proudly and that\u2019s why, for me, they\u2019re right up there with the best fans in the world,\u201d Robertson said. \u201cThey seem to always make friends along the way, and the locals fall in love with them. The Tartan Army will support us right to the end, and hopefully we can give them something to shout about.\u201d<\/p>\n
They were awarded the UEFA Fair Play Trophy in 1993 for their exemplary behavior and have established an official charity, the Tartan Army Sunshine Appeal, to give back to the communities they visit during their travels.<\/p>\n
In Boston, they gave a $10,000 donation to the Hasbro Children\u2019s hospital in Providence and split the rest of the $30,000 among the SAMH (Scottish Action for Mental Health) and the Rhode Island Highlanders to set up bagpipe lessons in local schools.<\/p>\n
One Scottish fan, 22-year-old Craig Ferguson, raised roughly $1 million for SAMH by completing a 3,200-mile \u201cTartan Trek\u201d charity walk from Los Angeles to Boston, wearing a kilt the entire way. He crossed the finish line in Boston Common last Friday, in time for the Haiti game, as a large Tartan Army gathering cheered him on.<\/p>\n
All over Boston and Providence, Scottish fans who stayed in rented homes went out of their way to meet neighbors and entertain them with bagpipers and traditional tunes. Unlike other passionate World Cup fan groups, the Tartan Army makes it a point to embed itself in local communities.<\/p>\n
The nickname Tartan Army was coined by British sports journalists in the 1970s to describe the massive traveling support of the Scotland national football team.<\/p>\n
On June 4, 1977, an estimated 50,000 Scottish fans traveled to Wembley Stadium in London for a British Home Championship match against England. Following a 2-1 victory, the Scots invaded the pitch, tore up turf, and broke the goalposts.<\/p>\n
Throughout the 1980s, the group was associated with hooliganism and rowdy, drunken behavior typical of European football culture at the time. But since the 1990s, the Tartan Army has made a conscious effort to reshape its image.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere came a point where the Scottish fans didn\u2019t want to be confused with English fans,\u201d said Andrew Downie, an author and journalist born in Scotland now based in Brazil and Madrid. \u201cScotland fans took on this new persona of going abroad and being friendly and doing philanthropic acts and singing nice songs and guiding old ladies across the road and carrying people\u2019s bags for them. That\u2019s when things really changed.\u201d<\/p>\n
Downie\u2019s wife is Brazilian, so they will have a divided household on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Scotland had not qualified for the World Cup in the past 28 years, so the Tartan Army had to watch the tournament from afar. But that changed on Nov. 28, 2025, when Scotland sealed a berth in the 2026 World Cup with a thrilling 4-2 victory over Denmark at Hampden Park that set off celebrations from the long-suffering Scots.<\/p>\n
A member of the Tartan Army poses for a picture ahead of the friendly international football match between Scotland and Ivory Coast at the Hill Dickinson Stadium in Liverpool, north west England on March 31, 2026. (Photo by PETER POWELL \/ AFP via Getty Images) PETER POWELL AFP via Getty Images <\/p>\n
Scott McTominay opened the scoring with a third-minute bicycle kick. Late extra-time strikes from Kieran Tierney and Kenny McLean secured the historic win, ending Scotland\u2019s 28-year wait to reach a major tournament.<\/p>\n
Steedman followed the match on his phone while riding home from work on his motorbike.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had to stop several times because I thought we were going to get blown away, but the scoreline kept changing and when I looked at it at a traffic light, I was like, `Oh my God.\u2019\u2019\u2019 he said. \u201cI couldn\u2019t believe what I was watching. I stopped at a Walgreens parking lot on Pembroke Road and by the end of the game, I was the only one standing there, cheering like nobody\u2019s business. People must have been looking at me to say, `What the hell is he doing?\u2019\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n
Despite having qualified on nine occasions, Scotland has never advanced from the group stage.<\/p>\n
They hope to make history this summer and got off to a good start with a win over Haiti.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a massive deal,\u201d Robertson said of Scotland\u2019s qualification. \u201cI think we obviously felt that straight after the Denmark game when we won it, but I suppose the nicest thing about it was the next day and the couple of days after it that I\u2019d spent in Scotland, how happy people were.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe reaction of everyone in the country, they were so happy for us, so happy for the country that we were back on the biggest stage. To be part of a small squad, only 26 players, but to be able to bring a whole country so much happiness, it was a real sense of achievement, and it gave us a real sense of peace and happiness.\u201d<\/p>\n
One of the greatest examples of Tartan Army lore is the story of Scottish businessman Jim Tait, who in 1977 had ambitions plans to charter a military submarine to transport 150 members of the Tartan Army from the River Clyde to the 1978 World Cup in Argentina. The deal eventually fell through, but the mere fact that he considered hiring a submarine speaks to the passion of the Scottish fans.<\/p>\n
South Florida is about to see it firsthand. A word of warning from Steedman: \u201cA true Scotsman doesn\u2019t wear anything under his kilt.\u201d<\/p>\n