First held in 1999 when a couple of pipe bands and a small bunch of enthusiastic Scottish-Americans took to the streets of New York, the annual Tartan Day Parade has become a big event in recent years.
Held on the closest Saturday to April 6, when the Declaration of Arbroath was signed in 1320, it’s the culmination of the city’s Tartan Week and is the world’s biggest event marking Tartan Day, a celebration originally established in Canada in the 1980s.
Each year a famous face is invited to be Grand Marshal, becoming the face of the year’s event and leading the parade of thousand of participants and musician - all, of course, wearing tartan.
This year’s procession, on Satuday, April 5, will see actor Alan Cumming become only the second person to act as Grand Marshal twice.
Here he is - along with the other 20 people to have accepted the honour since the inception of the event.
1. 1999: Cliff Robertson
The first Tartan Day parade was led by Academy Award-winning actor Cliff Robertson. The star won his Oscar for Best Actor for 'Charly' in 1968 and is better known to younger cinemagoers for playing Uncle Ben in the 2002–2007 'Spider-Man' film trilogy. | Getty Images
2. 2002: Sean Connery
After a short break, the parade returned in 2002 with Sean Connery acting as Grand Marshall. The Oscar winner is one of the most famous - and most loved - actors to have come out of Scotland, with most sensible people agreeing that he's the best James Bond. | Getty Images
3. 2005: Randall Wallace
After another brief hiatus, the parade returned to New York in 2005 to be led by Randall Wallace, the Academy Award-nominated Screenwriter of 'Braveheart'. He later moved into directing, making films including 'The Man in the Iron Mask' , 'We Were Soldiers' , 'Secretariat' and 'Heaven Is for Real'. | Getty Images
4. 2006: Brigadier Melville Jameson
Grand Marshal duties in 2006 were carried out by Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo producer Brigadier Melville Jameson. He would later become Lord Lieutenant of Perth and Kinross. | Getty Images