|
|
Post by gnat on Jul 25, 2013 9:12:25 GMT -7
Hey, I attended the Calgary Stampede a couple of times in the 60's and 70's. It was a huge deal then for the town. I was wondering if it is still the show it used to be?
I had been to some other Rodeos but I enjoyed the Stampede best.
Gnat
|
|
|
|
Post by Mofo on Jul 26, 2013 12:50:45 GMT -7
Pretty much, yeah. It's not my bag, so I have no idea how it fares in the general hierarchy of rodeos, but it's still a pretty major event within the city. I'd say it's easily *the* single largest event in the city, actually, though really it's just your average state fair type of deal. (for those who haven't been, it's an agricultural/state fair, with midway and all that, based on the premise that Calgary used to be a part of the wild west/a cowboy town, so everybody pretends they're fresh off the ranch for ten days) Buuut... yeah, they hype it for at least a month leading up to it. Most of the downtown core is effectively shut down, as most businesses will host a "stampede breakfast" with bacon, eggs and pancakes, so so workers will head to their company's event, or a friend's company's event, or crash a random event (to "network"  ). Then out for a long, boozy lunch. Then it's, say, 2.30, you haven't done any actual work, but since there's not really enough time to do anything, you might as well just head home early... On the other hand, a ton of sales and networking gets done. Anyone in the sales side of a business will spend it at a bar with various corporate big-wigs, trying to buy the next year's business. People schmooze and press flesh and all that. My B-I-L is in sales in the oil industry, and easily has a six-figure bar bill for his expense report at the end of it. It's a lot of "get drunk, pretend you're a cowboy, and party". Outside of the downtown area... most communities will have their own Stampede breakfasts. So will malls, community centres, politicians, etc. Most businesses will encourage their staff to wear "stampede casual", so you'll walk into a bank and the tellers are wearing jeans and cowboy boots. (as an aside, my Dad actually caught a ton of flak at work for continuing to wear a suit during stampede) Lots of stores will have their windows painted with stampede-themed stuff. The local TV channels will all do the news from the Stampede grounds, in cowboy garb, etc. The whole city is pretty much consumed by the whole "western" theme. ----- Interesting note: this year, the massive flooding through the city's core (which none of y'all seemed interested in  ) was about a week before the Stampede. And at one point, there was actually concern that the river was forming a new bed right through the grounds. The arena was flooded up to the 16th row, and the grounds in general were just a disaster zone. But, astonishingly, they managed to clean it up, install the midway, restore the rodeo area and successfully pull it off again this year. |
|
|
|
Post by gnat on Jul 30, 2013 11:34:40 GMT -7
Actually I was interested but could not find any pics. Floods need visuals like the one Jake Cikhart published during the floods in Prague. Anyway...
Thanks for the info on the Stampede..And by the way Im not a cowboy ....I just found the hat. But after living on a cattle farm for almost 30 years you develop a small interest in cowboy stuff.
Gnat
|
|
) was about a week before the Stampede. And at one point, there was actually concern that the river was forming a new bed right through the grounds. The arena was flooded up to the 16th row, and the grounds in general were just a disaster zone. But, astonishingly, they managed to clean it up, install the midway, restore the rodeo area and successfully pull it off again this year.