Stampede Day#1 - What's it about?

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In many respects they say Stampede is a time of the year where everyone just gets wild and lets loose. In a way I have found that to be very true, bars on 17^th Avenue(a street filled with a variety of bars, nightclubs, restaurants and more) packed with drunken people throwing up, guys pissing in alley ways in full exposure and even the traditional drunken brawl on a night out. It could be considered as “The Vegas Strip” for Calgary. But I got to experience a bit more of the culture and history behind Stampede rather than the modern mentality of the younger generation which was “Lets get piss drunk for the next 10 days.” So a number of things happen during the 10 day period as I was still working between the festivities, I had to make adjustments to make sure I got myself to the Stampede. All in all, my attendance to the Stampede just fell short of the halfway mark. I managed to get 4 days out of the 10 and it was enough to experience every aspect of what the Calgary Stampede everyone has been bragging on about.

The Pass out Stamp
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Day 1

Stampede Style Day One

The first day I went to the Stampede was a Sunday (the Third day) and it was “Family Day” for the Stampede where admission to the grounds was free, but only between 7am and 9am in the morning.

So the night before, I stayed at Jimmy’s house(an Asian guy, I met through Yestyn, who is a teacher that teaches Science and Maths) as we planned get up early and go together.

Jimmy and me
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When morning came it was a bit of a hassle dragging myself out of bed but I eventually did. After prolonging my sleep as much as I could, it was 8.30am by the time we left Jimmy’s house and we rushed to the grounds, Jimmy sped all the way during the drive, and then we had to also find parking. Luckily Jimmy’s cousin had a convenient store two blocks from the grounds so we parked there.

Five minutes left before free admission ends and we sprinted like there was no tomorrow, jumping over gates, almost knocking kids out of the way, running up the stairs dodging people and it wasn’t only us that were running. Everyone else was running to the grounds to get the free admission, parents carrying babies running, parents pushing prams Jay walking like madness. It was havoc, like the world was coming to an end or something. So we finally get there and there was a sea of people wearing cowboy hats lining up, I was thinking it would surely suck if we reach the entrance and we miss out by a couple minutes. But they were still letting people in for free just after 9am.

Some dude in cowboy gear downtown
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Once we got through the gates, we proceeded to take a little tour walk to check out the place. At first glance it was just like another festival full of rides, exactly like the Melbourne show. Upon a second thought, the place was huge it was like the Melbourne show but increased by ten fold. They had every kind of prize game under the sun; shoot a basketball through a hoop, win a prize. The horse racing game where you roll the ball in holes to make the horse gallop, win a prize. Throwing rubber balls to break ceramic plates – win a prize. Then there were gambling games where it’s like Russian Roulette but kiddy style. It goes like this, picture a roulette table at the casino but rather than numbers, there are 6 different types of colours. You place your money on a coloured block then in the middle there’s a pizza wheel with 6 pizza sections with holes cut out on the outer crust just big enough so that a ball can rest on it to mark the winning colour. So the pizza wheel, spins constantly like a roulette wheel and just above it there is a large funnel web and one of the bettors on the outside perimeter of the table throws a ball into the funnel web and the ball spirals all the way down and out of the funnel and eventually comes to rest on one of the holes cupping the ball. Then the winning colour is announced and all winning bets are paid. There are several variations to this game like using months and even the original, numbers instead.

More randoms
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I even saw another gambling game similar to the big wheel, but having 6 pins that spin rather than the wheel and you get paid out according to the number of pins that land within your pizza slice section.

All this exposure to kids may not be the best idea but I guess the festivals nowadays are more catered to the grown ups as well. We even saw other entertainment such as live bands and hypnosis shows and beer tents. The stampede even offered, a free pankcake breakfast between 7am – 9am everyday and not only was the Stampede offereing it, there were free Stampede breakfasts being served everywhere in Calgary. However the line up for these breakfasts was long like at least an hour waiting in line. Although it would have been nice to try, my impatience just got the better of me.

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So we continued on to check out the Coke stage, where the other entertainment was held such as the live bands and hypnosis shows. Once we got there, Terry Stokes, a Hypnotist (who performs often in Las Vegas) was performing his show. Jimmy and I happen to catch the mid section of the show; we grabbed a seat on the grass and continued to watch the duration of it. I’ve never watched a hypnosis show before and it was great. At once stage in Terry’s performance, he would hypnotize a girl so that whenever he said “Romance”, the girl would fall insanely in love with one of her male friends and start pashing him until Terry said “Awake!” Boy that was demoralizing but funny!

playing cowboy on the street
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In the evening, Jimmy and a few of his friends had already arranged to watch the Grandstand show and the Chuck Wagon races, so I decided to tag along. Although they had seated tickets, I went ahead to buy a rush ticket which only enables me to stand, kind of like in the mosh pit of a concert. Once we got into the building where the show was held, the guys were hungry so we went up to the restaurant to eat. The view of the Grandstand from the restaurant was perfect, like the corporate seats you get at a football or ice hockey game. The first 2 rows of the restaurant seating were directly facing the glass wall overlooking the whole Grandstand in full visibility. Then the rest of the restaurant had tables and booths scattered everywhere else. While the guys ordered and ate, I found a spare seat on the second row overlooking the show so I snagged it since I already ate dinner and watched the Chuck Wagon races.

Jimmy playing cowboy
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Now the story behind the Chuck Wagon races are, in the olden days, cowboys, women and children all commuted by wagons which were pulled by a few horses. The women and children sat inside the wagon while the men or the cowboys were either steering the horses driving the wagon or riding on individual horses around the wagon to protect it. So when they had to get away quickly, they would throw everything they had into the wagon and ride off immediately. Then the cowboys riding the individual horses called outriders would ride beside the wagon to protect the women and children while they were being chased by Indians etc.

That's the line up
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So in turning this scenario into a race, each qualifying lap leading up to the finals consists of four competing chuck wagons. The starting line is a bit of a hurdle as each wagon is faced backwards between two big barrels and on the blow of the starting horn, the outriders throw a ladder into the chuck wagon while the chuck wagon is simultaneously maneuvering themselves around the barrels in a slight unfinished figure eight format and then they speed off to complete one lap of the race track, the outriders after throwing the ladder into the chuck wagon would promptly get on their horses and ride off to try and finish within 1 second of the chuck wagon crossing the finish line. If they fail to do this, this means they failed in protecting the wagon and therefore get penalised time.

The Front Entrance to the Stampede Grounds
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Following the Chuck Wagon races, the guys had finished dinner in the restaurant and a few of them went to their seating area whereas others also found a few spare seats in the second row and situated themselves there for the main Grandstand show. I was still in my seat enjoying the view, I even had water top ups and tea top ups from the waiters. I was treated like I was some big shot, but I guess it helps when you have an accent and make people think you flew all the way over specifically for the Stampede.

The Event list for the Coke Stage
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So I wasn’t hassled all night and I stayed and watched the show from here.

With the Grandstand show, it was more about the history and culture behind the Stampede, how it all began in 1912. There was a narrator telling the story as the show went along. I would describe it as one massive cabaret show with lots of singing and dancing and a few other entertaining performers, such as tap dancers, a Chinese Yoyo performer a ventriloquist and some native Indian dancers as well. Overall the show was definitely worth watching, I found out later on that the seating area in the restaurant where I was sitting were ticketed seating and they cost about $89 bucks. Talk about a big shot.