Any of my readers who have visited Calgary will know that it is not only famous as the home of The Calgary Stampede & Exhibition for the past 104 years is also known as the City of four seasons in a day. Faced with rain,sunshine,sleet and winds annually around this time of the year it means that the annual Stampede will proceed regardless of the weather. The Calgary floods of 2013 is again lived up to the Calgary testimony to this spirit when even the infield, the home of the rodeo and the running of the Chuck Wagons was under water only three weeks before the event meant that thousands of man hours were utilised 24/7 to ensure the event took place. This year my two visits to the Stampede has seen a hot morning that changed to cloud cover then rain and winds and a clearing sky so the title means the event proceeds again. Gee i felt sorry for the Young Canadians performing on stage at 10pm in summer clothing while water covered them. Great work Mr Producer didn't see you out there! Yes the song was Purple Rain but the only thing purple was frozen kids!
however before getting to day one I again attended the Premiers breakfast with Rachael (Notley The Premier) the most notable difference from 2012 was the Political over tones as yet again multiculturalism was rammed down our throats. Well I did note that many nationalities were present and no they didn't all assimilate. As the photographs show the best entertainment was "Spot the thief"as certain ethnic groups would make a bee line for the free chocolate milk faces half hidden by hoodies as they swooped and then beat a retreat behind the bushes to load up backpacks before returning to "clean up again".
As well as the Premier speaking the President & Chairman of The Board Calgary Stampede Bill Gray addressed us on the value of the stampede not only in bringing estimated income of $400m but also in creating some 2500 casual jobs as well as the value of volunteerism that for the Honorary Board members may see them "working"over 400 hours per year.
The Calgary Stampede Show Band made one of it's over 200 performances and given the small sloping space afforded them they did a great job.
Unlike say the Royal Easter Show in Sydney Australia general admission prices are low:
13-64 years of age $16
Child 7-12 $9
under 6 free
Seniors $9
However three of the ten days are free for certain groups:
Suncor Energy Family Day anyone from 6am-9am includes free breakfast
Western Heritage Day Seniors free all day those accompanying them free up to 9.30am
BMO Telco Kid's Day kids and accompanying Adults free from 7am-9am with free breakfast.
If one wishes to go to the afternoon Rodeo and/or grandstand show with the chucks an additional fee applies but if pre purchased it includes ground general admission.(rodeo from $14 Grandstand from $17)
General admission included this year free shows such as Canine Rescue Dogs, Motorcycle/ Skidoo freestyle stunt show, Chine Peking Acrobat troop, Stampede Talent Quest and the new Enmax Energy Indian Village as well as hundreds of normal show attractions and activities.
Food is very varied such as Lotus fried Onions, Fried Gherkins and Fried Oreo biscuits,Deep fried ice cream,Nutella Mini Do nuts,deep fried Oreo milkshake,fruit infused grilled cheese,Bombay cowboys, & the Pickled corn dog stand out as shall we say "different & unusual"show foods. But then these Canadians have celebrated breakfast with Bush's Quebec Maple Syrup baked beans since 1908 so maybe the rest of us are uncultured? (www.bushbeans.ca)
The Stampede has many media sponsors but one I like is Country 105 (www.country105.com).
Also worthwhile is a look at the clothing one might like to wear at the Stampede (www.lammles.com)
The canine show was high on my list as i had previously watched The SuperDogs and was keen to see what had replaced them. A long wait saw this plan scrapped on day one but day two and about a hour wait saw us watching the show which features only rescued dogs- no not by the VRA but from dog shelters. The highlight for many is the leaps into the pool with some dogs managing a leap horizontally of some 4m.
The hammering of 96 hooves and the rumbling of 16 wagon wheels as the chuck wagons roar down the track reverberates through the grounds bouncing the loose dust on a dry day and rippling the track side puddles on a wet day. You can feel it in your feet,your legs,your chest as the wagons roar by. The sound builds as the wagons approach and reaches a crescendo before receding as they pass,like a boom of thunder rolling across the skies.From the klaxon horn signaling the start to the finish only around 1min 15 seconds later for a slow heat that half mile of hell is one of the most exciting events at the Calgary Stampede and is immortalized in a song "Half Mile of Hell"and features in an iconic drawing showing a group of four famous drivers of which only one now survives which I was able to acquire many years ago on a previous visit as it had sat almost lost in a small Canadian town for many years.
Vern Nolin probably known to none of you was the winner on Night 4 of the Chuck wagon races and offered the following interview.Night 4 was a wet track and when asked how his horses handled the conditions Vern said "They run well in the wet. I think maybe it has a lot to do with the way we train. I like lots of muscle pulling my wagon. (all wagon horses are x racing Thoroughbred's and wagon masters usually bring a string of up to 20 horses to the event) Vern continued "Sometimes it doesn't show on harder tracks but they're strong and they can pull through the mud.The 43 year old concluded with""It's something we have to deal with and you get better with experience."The chucks compete for day money and then the final worth $100,000 plus a new GMC Pick Up in total over the 10 nights some $1.5m is distributed amongst the 40 invited teams.see photo of presentation for the day's win of Vern Nolin with his wife.
The afternoon rodeo however tops out the prizemoney with a total of $2m up for grabs amongst the ten invited contestants in each field of Bull Riding, Bare Back Bronc, Saddle Bronc, Calf Roping (Tie Down Roping) and Ladies Barrel Racing usually $5500 first per day,$4500 2nd,$3500 3rd,$2500 4th & $1500 5th assuming their are no tied scores and in all events the final round on the last day of the Stampede is winner takes $100,000.
The Tie Down allowed me to gain an insight to the daily winner when I was there as well as getting an autographed poster that may look out of place against TT winners like John McGuiness but will highlight another great athletic achievement. Fred Whitfield (see photo) is a 49 yr old from Hockley,Texas ,USA making his 27th appearance in this event at the Stampede. During that time he has taken out the top money on three occasions 1993,2001 & 2007.He like many of the invited Stampede competitors are millionaires unlike Josh Birks from Merriwa NSW Australia who was one of two bull riders invited from Australia this year but went out of the round with a BO (Bucked off) nil score and no pay check this day but still he has five more tries to make the top ten on Sunday. Fred however is well on his way but as he said ""It's probably the toughest group of guys up here that I've been in. I'm just $5500 ahead of some of the guy's and they're going to tie these calves real quick also."Fred's wining time was 6.9 seconds.The guy's he was talking about includes 2015 winner Timber Moore,2012 winner Corey Solomon and 2011 winner Tuf Cooper. Fred finished by saying Ït's huge,this group of guy's is going to be really tough. They're going to tie a lot of calves fast,so to be able to come out and compete well ,I know today is the first go around and they're going to bounce back and it's going to get tougher as we go."
The other iconic feature of The Calgary Stampede is the nightly Grandstand show. This year I was less impressed as despite a theme of homage to Stampede Founder Guy Weadwick failed to follow through with undressing of the Young Canadians and a slow start ( as well as being not on time) Many years The Young Canadians attend over 200 hours of practise and the show while colourful didn't really highlight the immense efforts they put in. Guest artists are always a feature since even Guy Weadwick first bought in Bi planes to buzz the stage since the first Stampede in 1912. This year we had a slack wire rope walker, motorcycles, a drillers (oil) competition and the Star featured act was a wire rope walker who unharnessed and with flames on either side of the cable walked some 35m above the stage. This year the finale fireworks I must say ,having worked at the Stampede fireworks for many years in the past were the best i have seen and far out weight those I recently witnessed at Disney World in Florida.