How "World Famous" is the Stampede actually?

[CliffFletcher]

Originally Posted by getbak

You could say pretty much the exact same things about Munich and Oktoberfest.

I was surprised by how much Oktoberfest was exactly like the Stampede, big drinking tents on a dusty parking lot surrounded by a bunch of cheap midway rides and games.

True. But it has five times the attendance of the Stampede, and it's all about beer. Basically, 15x Nashville Norths with oom-pa-pa bands.

[chemgear]

Originally Posted by Ozy_Flame

Well someone is famous at the Stampede for all the wrong reasons. Check out the Calgary subreddit called "The Trashy Side of Stampede!"

It's the best time of year for divorce lawyers and STD's. Speaking of which, there's a vine/video of the up as well.

[Party Elephant]

When people ask me where I'm from and I say Calgary, I often get asked about stampede. It's not a majority of people I meet because the majority of people I meet tend to have not heard of Calgary in the first place, but those that have usually know what stampede is. Queenstown, where I live, is mostly full of brits/euros and during ski season aussies, with some canadians, americans and south americans as well. I find it funny that most europeans I meet have at least heard of Calgary and often say they want to go there for a ski season, while americans usually have no fataing clue. One of my old food delivery guys was from Seattle, didn't even know where Calgary was. Brutal.

[calumniate]

Calgary has grown up quite a bit with things like movie festivals, sled Island etc. The stampede may want to reinvent itself eventually, but I'm not sure when that time will come. Even for myself I'm willing to put on the face and have a good time. But would I prefer something more like Mardi gras or Montreal jazz fest? Absolutely!

[Ryan Coke]

In the mid 90's I was in the Middle East. Not only had many people there heard of the Calgary Stampede but they were having an Oman Stampede in honor of our party. Couldn't believe it.

[T@T]

In the early 80's the Stampede was "thee" event in Canada, the city never slept for 10 days, the norm was for people who lived here to be excused from work at least 3 or 4 days, one didn't dare wear a suit when you did go to work or the boss would send you home for jeans and boots.(how many here even own cowboy boots anymore?)

Every corner of the city had Beer Gardens with multiple bands and the booze flowed till 3am and some poured enough to last till 5, does anyone even hold a BG anymore?

Even the breakfast's are crap now, back then when a company put on a breakfast it evolved into a drunken party all day. Now days it's an hour and back to work!

Unless your a huge rodeo fan, Stampede is just cash cow garbage now days.

[Hugh Jahrmes]

I hear it's been making serious moves towards overtaking the Ponoka Stampede..


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[CliffFletcher]

Originally Posted by T@T

In the early 80's the Stampede was "thee" event in Canada, the city never slept for 10 days, the norm was for people who lived here to be excused from work at least 3 or 4 days, one didn't dare wear a suit when you did go to work or the boss would send you home for jeans and boots.(how many here even own cowboy boots anymore?)

Every corner of the city had Beer Gardens with multiple bands and the booze flowed till 3am and some poured enough to last till 5, does anyone even hold a BG anymore?

Even the breakfast's are crap now, back then when a company put on a breakfast it evolved into a drunken party all day. Now days it's an hour and back to work!

Unless your a huge rodeo fan, Stampede is just cash cow garbage now days.

The workplace partying is just a shadow of what it used to be. In fact, even if you work downtown you can easily miss that Stampede is happening at all. It used to be that people who weren't into Stampede had to head out of town to avoid it. Now, it can easily be ignored.

[habernac]

Originally Posted by killer_carlson

i've travelled around the world and can also attest to the fact that the Calgary Stampede is known world wide. People know it to be a hell of a party, Canada's equivalent to mardi gras, and for the rodeo aspect as well. The fact that the entire city embraces the experience is also well known and respected based on my experiences.

I also recall an episode of Mash when one of the characters was looking for a piece of fabric or special paper and what he got "looks like it's been through the Calgary Stampede". This would have been at a time where there were not as many channels and Mash as the #1 show on TV.

So while it's a Canadian thing to crap all over our own experiences, as it pertains to the Calgary Stampede, it is legitimately world famous.

That was Charles Winchester talking to Hawkeye in the Swamp.

Originally Posted by chemgear

It's the best time of year for divorce lawyers and STD's. Speaking of which, there's a vine/video of the up as well.

My wife works at the lab, pregnancy tests and STDs go up ten fold during Stampede time.

[_Q_]

Stampede isn't world famous at all.... it's hilarious to think otherwise.

There might be pockets around the world that are into the cowboy niche that know about the Stampede, but generally speaking, Stampede is just a Western Canadian thing.

As for the folks from England, Australia, Germany or whatever that people meet every year at Stampede, those are the folks that are into this sort of thing that you're meeting.

[Regular_John]

I once met a British guy who thought the Calgary "Stampede" was akin to the running of the bulls in Spain.

We were at the pub and he kept asking me odd questions about horses/bulls in the street and how we wrangle them up afterwards. And how Calgary looks like such a modern city, how do they keep the animals from destroying all those glass windows he saw?

I was like "uhh it's really just horses in the parade downtown, the rest of the rodeo is well contained"

He seemed dissapointed.

/cool story bro

[PeteMoss]

Originally Posted by MrMastodonFarm

It might attract more tourists but that number would have to be through the roof to compete with the economic impact the Stampede brings to Calgary.

The Montreal Jazz Festival is the biggest Festival in Canada in terms of attendance, bringing in 2.5 million people. The economic impact is an impressive 100 million dollars for the event.

The Calgary Stampede is the 7th largest in terms of attendance and sees 1.2 million through the gate (2nd is Ottawa's Interlude at 1.6). The economic impact for those ten days is an astounding 172 million. So go to the Stampede board and try explaining that to them. "Hey, I'm a guy and I have an idea how to lose 72 million dollars for you"

The idea that we need to scrap one to have the other is pretty stupid too, it takes a long time to build up a Festival, instead of wishing Stampede changes get out and support Sled Island and let's continue to see that grow.

The Rodeo, well yeah thats a separate issue and I wish we could do away with that, or at least some events somehow.

Went on a rant there but it always seems to be the born and breed Calgarians that get stuffy about the Stampede. Oh dear, the rides don't change. The rides rarely change at any of these events. The Midway crews unpack in Calgary, do this event, pack back up and do 100+ other events across North America.

It's just a big dress up costume party for ten days, and as someone us doesn't up costume parties, especially Halloween, I've managed to get over it.

Long to know how they calculate those economic impact numbers. They strike me as outlandish and similar to the numbers that get thrown around when talking about when someone wants a stadium/arena build.

[burn_this_city]

Originally Posted by Ryan Coke

In the mid 90's I was in the Middle East. Not only had many people there heard of the Calgary Stampede but they were having an Oman Stampede in honor of our party. Couldn't believe it.

They still have the Canadian Stampede in Muscat every year.

[SportsJunky]

I don't think I've ever heard the Stampede brought up by any of my family and they know I'm a Calgarian. I don't think it is on many American's radar.

[troutman]

One way to solve this - start a thread on Frankfurtpuck, and ask how many have heard of the Stampede.

[Cappy]

Originally Posted by CliffFletcher

True. But it has five times the attendance of the Stampede, and it's all about beer. Basically, 15x Nashville Norths with oom-pa-pa bands.

I agree with what both of you said. It is very similar to Octoberfest and when people ask me about it i just say its the Stampede on steroids. The beer halls are excellently done and they really embrace local breweries there (local doesn't mean micro). But it is still a big drinking event that has rides and such.

Honestly, if all the world famous parties here are identical in spirit. They are massive celebrations filled with a ton of drunk people celebrating some spirit of their past, no matter how dubious or unrelated that history is. The separation comes from the locals whole-heartily embracing that part of their culture or the event.

Octoberfest is loved by Bavarians which allows it to be great. Mardi Gras is loved by Louisianans (sp?). Carnival is loved by Brazilians. They embrace their parties and it allows those parties to grow and flourish with different activities for everyone!

Want the Stampede to be better? people should stop mocking it (i'm not implying that any of you are) and contribute to making it fun and different. Make it evolve. There is nothing wrong with trying to start a cool event during stampede that brings in a ton of underground or local artists with a folk or country vibe!

At the end of the day though, you have to give the Stampede credit. Calgary is a city of 1 million people, probably in the 500's in terms of population, in this little-big country called Canada, and some people around the world can say, "oh hey, Calgary! Stampede right?"

[troutman]

Getting plenty of bad publicity.

Second horse put down after chuckwagon collision

http://calgaryherald.com/sports/rode...agon-collision

[driveway]

No one I've ever run into overseas has brought up the Calgary Stampede when I mention where I'm from. If I bring it up, or it comes up somehow in conversation, they'll nod in a way that says "those are words I have heard before" but it's really not on a lot of people's radar.

However, this doesn't mean there is anything wrong with Stampede.

Except maybe the lack of workplace drinking. That's some bull####.

[polak]

Alright, you guys weren't very helpful. Guess I'm going to get drunk and survey randoms at the Stampede today and ask them where they're from.

And by survey I mean cheers, mumble and vomit.

[Weitz]

I love stampede. 6 or 7 days of drunken fun and mindless events that I don't have to spend a dime to enjoy.