The Calgary Stampede
Madison Doll said:
Seems we have picked a very bust time in Calgary to visit...
What is the stampeed anyway?!?
The Calgary Stampede is usually in early July, and is a combination of a number of things:
1. A celebration of the cowboy/wild west way of life (Hollywood cowboy way of life for most, lots of cowboy boots, hats, and yahoos around);
2. A real, live rodeo show, which includes the always wild Chuckwagon races, considered to be amongst the best in the world;;
3. A major meeting place for many ranchers in the general Southern Alberta area;
4. A week-week and a half excuse to party like crazy;
5. An amusement park, with a free kids day, on Wednesday mornings usually;
6. More country music than could ever be imagined or should ever be played (my opinion)
All this happens at the Stampede grounds, which is not far from Downtown Calgary. Most major companies have Stampede breakfasts sometime during the stampede. You just show up, grab a plate, and have a free breakfast (this is usually downtown, but there are other scattered locations around town that will have this. Most companies will give employees a half day off to go to the Stampede.
For Toronto residents, think of it as a country and western version of the CNE, and you get pretty close. The corporate participation is far higher in Calgary, though. Its pretty nice all around, but there are a lot of poseurs around, as well as real, genuine ranchers and cowboys (mostly in the rodeo).
As long as you have a hotel booked, or at least a place to stay, you will probably have a great time.
A lot of residents don't like staying around town, as it gets pretty crowded (average attendance is over 1 million, sometimes as high as a 1.2 million people). There is a C train (public transit rail system) that is just great for getting to the grounds, and avoiding parking hassles.
Kinman
