[Bring_Back_Shantz]

I really don't understand how people can get all upset with Stampede.

Seriously, what other cities in the world just up and decide to have a 10 day city wide party once a year?

There's Carnival, Mardi Gras, Octoverfest, and probably a few others. Do you think people get up in arms because people in Rio don't dance in the streets the rest of the yar, or that people in New Orleans don't hang out in the French Quarter every other day, or that most people in Munich don't dress like sheep hearders and eat cheese soup the other 11 months of the year?

Probalby, but those people are killjoys who don't understand something very important, which is that all of these festivals are a chance for people to share in something.

It may not be a cultural activity that defines them for most of the year, but once a year, we get to get together and share in something that is rather important, and that is a celebration of the cultural roots of our city or region. It may not be a culture that everyone is specifically linked to, but we all have one thing in common, we live in a place, where at one time, that culture did affect everyone who was here, and in a very real way affected how and what the city has become.
Stampede, like other world class parties, festivals, cultural events, are a means for all of us to share/get a taste of the cultural roots of THIS CITY, and to have a little bit of fun while we're at it.

Sure some people are ###### bags about it, but who cares? Ignore the guys in tapout t-shirts (I do the other 355 days of the year and don't have any problem doing it when they're wearing cowboy hats either), and relax, you just might accidentially have a good time.

The reality of it though, is that I don't really care if people hate Stampede for some reason. I'm gonna have a hell of a good time with my friends at the chucks, rodeo, and probalby a bar or two, and I'll be wearing my boots and hat the whole time, cause damnit, it's just more fun that way.