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Stampede Nights
April 23rd, 2008
AUTHOR: Melanie Jones
Stampede Nights
The Calgary Stampede, while known for the bull ridin’, chuckwagon racin’, and midway teddy bear-winnin’, is also famous for its unstoppable party scene. The city’s population virtually doubles during this ten-day celebration of Western culture in early July, and a lot of folks visit especially for the scores of bars, clubs, casinos and concert halls. But to call it ‘nightlife’ is downright incorrect. At the Stampede, the party starts before noon and doesn’t stop until well after sundown.
Cara, a local server, has worked many a Stampede, enjoying big tips and the folks who come to Calgary especially for the festive atmosphere. “During Stampede, you can make $100 just for a smile,” she says. Alcohol consumption triples or quadruples this time of year, so a waitress can haul in $5,000 over the ten days without even trying. Meanwhile, Jason, a local firefighter, spends at least a paycheque on Stampede partying. “I love Stampede, but my wallet usually takes a pretty serious hit,” he says. It’s quite an interesting anthropological phenomenon actually—while the men flock to the city to spend scads of money, many women come here to make it.
As the families and tweens head to the midway for their Stampede experience, more and more of the Stampede Zeitgeist is found outside the grounds, in the city’s cowboy bars, saloons and parking lot beer tents. The party scene of the Calgary Stampede has generated national and international attention—it’s been compared to Mardi Gras on more than one occasion, and the parallel is accurate. Stampede-time is a ten-day, all-day party—and it ranges from high-end cowboy genteel to the kind of fun some might call downright unsavoury.
While twenty and thirtysomethings flood the city from all over the world for a week of partying, Calgary’s corporate culture takes full advantage—for them, the Stampede is a ten-day client relations junket beginning with breakfast and ending well after midnight. Some downtown types receive over 20 invitations, from pancake breakfasts to large-scale corporate parties with big name bands like Blue Rodeo and Lonestar, costing hundreds of thousands of dollars to produce. No one gets much work done, but there is no better time for business development.
For nightlife establishments throughout the city, Stampede is their busiest time of year, a coming-out party with tons of special events and sky-high beer sales. A few years ago, a local bar was forced to send trucks to Saskatchewan halfway through Stampede for more Kokanee beer—the province of Alberta was literally sold out!
The raucous reputation of the Stampede has its own host of urban legends. Did you know that the birth rate in Calgary spikes in April and divorce rates go up in August? Regardless, the cowboy mystique lives on in the saloons and dance halls of the city, and in many ways the party atmosphere retains the energy of the days when wranglers came back from weeks on the range looking to cut loose in the company of whiskey and women. The Calgary Stampede is a little like bull riding—except instead of hanging on for eight seconds, you have to hang on for ten days. Hold on to your hat—it’s one wild ride.
Props: where.ca
The Calgary Stampede, while known for the bull ridin’, chuckwagon racin’, and midway teddy bear-winnin’, is also famous for its unstoppable party scene. The city’s population virtually doubles during this ten-day celebration of Western culture in early July, and a lot of folks visit especially for the scores of bars, clubs, casinos and concert halls. But to call it ‘nightlife’ is downright incorrect. At the Stampede, the party starts before noon and doesn’t stop until well after sundown.
Cara, a local server, has worked many a Stampede, enjoying big tips and the folks who come to Calgary especially for the festive atmosphere. “During Stampede, you can make $100 just for a smile,” she says. Alcohol consumption triples or quadruples this time of year, so a waitress can haul in $5,000 over the ten days without even trying. Meanwhile, Jason, a local firefighter, spends at least a paycheque on Stampede partying. “I love Stampede, but my wallet usually takes a pretty serious hit,” he says. It’s quite an interesting anthropological phenomenon actually—while the men flock to the city to spend scads of money, many women come here to make it.
As the families and tweens head to the midway for their Stampede experience, more and more of the Stampede Zeitgeist is found outside the grounds, in the city’s cowboy bars, saloons and parking lot beer tents. The party scene of the Calgary Stampede has generated national and international attention—it’s been compared to Mardi Gras on more than one occasion, and the parallel is accurate. Stampede-time is a ten-day, all-day party—and it ranges from high-end cowboy genteel to the kind of fun some might call downright unsavoury.
While twenty and thirtysomethings flood the city from all over the world for a week of partying, Calgary’s corporate culture takes full advantage—for them, the Stampede is a ten-day client relations junket beginning with breakfast and ending well after midnight. Some downtown types receive over 20 invitations, from pancake breakfasts to large-scale corporate parties with big name bands like Blue Rodeo and Lonestar, costing hundreds of thousands of dollars to produce. No one gets much work done, but there is no better time for business development.
For nightlife establishments throughout the city, Stampede is their busiest time of year, a coming-out party with tons of special events and sky-high beer sales. A few years ago, a local bar was forced to send trucks to Saskatchewan halfway through Stampede for more Kokanee beer—the province of Alberta was literally sold out!
The raucous reputation of the Stampede has its own host of urban legends. Did you know that the birth rate in Calgary spikes in April and divorce rates go up in August? Regardless, the cowboy mystique lives on in the saloons and dance halls of the city, and in many ways the party atmosphere retains the energy of the days when wranglers came back from weeks on the range looking to cut loose in the company of whiskey and women. The Calgary Stampede is a little like bull riding—except instead of hanging on for eight seconds, you have to hang on for ten days. Hold on to your hat—it’s one wild ride.
Props: where.ca