Stampede is part of city's DNA
The Greatest Outdoor Show on Earth returns, defiantly resilient like the city itself
It is the iconic symbol of western hospitality in these parts, not to mention the signature image of the city's annual 10-day festival of rodeo, carnival and community coming together.
So when last year the Calgary Stampede was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Jeffrey Arndt turned to his white cowboy hat for solace — not only for himself but for anyone else who might be feeling down.
“Stampede went away, but its spirit didn't have to,” says the 25-year-old Manitoba transplant, who works as a science guide at Telus Spark.
“I wore it throughout what should have been the 10 days of the 2020 Calgary Stampede, but then I decided to keep wearing it into the fall, winter and spring,” adds Arndt, who worked as a grandstand guest ambassador at the Stampede during his first couple of years in Calgary.
“It made people smile, especially kids. It felt like I was wearing a lifestyle on top of my head.”
Although he's only been in Calgary for five years, Arndt says the myriad attributes of the Calgary Stampede quickly turned him into one of its biggest boosters.
“Too many people here don't give it the credit it deserves as a world-class community and cultural event,” he says. “People put it down, when it should be one of the things we are most proud of.”
The 2021 Calgary Stampede has received some criticism due to the decision to stage the Greatest Outdoor Show on Earth in the waning months of a global pandemic. But by the time opening day hits on Friday, the city will see a very different Calgary Stampede — one that swims against its usual current of the “go big or go home” mentality. Instead, it will stage something much smaller and filled with safety protocols, all in an effort to stave off any virus “super-spreader” situations.
Arndt is proud to shout his love for Stampede from the rooftops. “It's about being a citizen of Calgary, the best kind,” he says. “The Stampede is a celebration that is city-wide; it's not just about what's happening at Stampede Park.”
It's not difficult to find others who share in his unabashed love of the event that first appeared in 1912 and — other than in 2020 — has occurred annually since 1923. Of those, George Brookman proudly wears the mantle of one of the most vocal.
“If we weren't able to do anything at Stampede Park this year, I'd still want everyone to dust off their cowboy duds and wear them for the entire 10 days,” says Brookman, who received the Order of Canada last year for his contributions to Calgary's business and volunteer scene.
“The Stampede isn't just an event; it's a culture that permeates our city — and right now, we need it more than ever.”
Before he began a 44-year volunteering career with the Stampede, Brookman, who served as its president in the 1990s, spent a boyhood getting ready for public service.
“I'd sit on the curb dreaming about one day riding in the parade,” says the Calgary native. “Little did I know I'd end up riding on a horse in the parade 18 times. But I had to wait until I was in my forties to do it for the first time.”
Brookman, who also writes regular opinion columns for the Calgary Herald, says the Stampede embodies what he calls the unique Alberta attitude.
“It's about the honesty of a handshake, western hospitality and values,” he says. “It's important for our psyche. I am going to be a Stampede ambassador until the day I die.”
Todd Hawkwood has also noticed the ambivalence of some towards the annual event that has put Calgary on the international map.
“It's not a popular thing right now to be big on the Stampede,” says Hawkwood, a Calgary native whose family has ranching roots in the foothills just west of town. “But I think it still plays an important role in these parts, both in our history and today.
“The fact is that you can enjoy Stampede from just about any corner of the city,” says Hawkwood, who grew up attending bull sales, horse sales and agricultural exhibitions.
“You can hang out at the barns, or you can completely stay away from Stampede Park and go to an outdoor community event,” says Hawkwood, a long-time consultant in Calgary's arts and culture sector.
“It's a cultural and community celebration that everyone can be a part of. You can't find something as unique as this anywhere else.”
The love-hate relationship some Calgarians have with the annual cowboy event has long fascinated Aritha van Herk, to the extent that in 2016 she wrote a book about it — Stampede and the Westness of West.
“It's our Carnival, a combination of nostalgia and defiance, of foolhardiness and weird celebration — it's our version of the Roman gladiators,” says van Herk, an acclaimed author who teaches English at the University of Calgary. “It has a certain kind of pull, not just for Calgarians but for people all over the world.”
While van Herk admits she doesn't attend each and every year, she does love many aspects of the annual festival.
“Stampede is a necessary part of our city's escape from daily expectation,” she says.
Even though it's part of the city's DNA, says van Herk, it also inspires occasional ambivalence.
“You're not a real Calgarian until you've left town for at least one Stampede,” she says with a chuckle, adding that nevertheless, it's a tradition of which we should be proud.
That pride and Stampede spirit can be seen throughout Calgary, but the city's mayor, Naheed Nenshi, agrees with Brookman about the best gig at Stampede, which normally provides an annual $540-million boost to local and provincial economies.
“I've been lucky enough to have had so many different Stampede experiences,” says Nenshi, who attended the parade, barns and midway as a child from a working-class family in Calgary's northeast, later graduating to splashy, invite-only corporate events. “But there is nothing better than riding a horse in the parade.”
Like many Calgarians, Nenshi — a long-time supporter of the Stampede — has mixed emotions about this year's event.
“Is it going to be safe? Is it the right time to put on an unabashed celebration when so many have lost so much? These are questions I ask myself,” he says.
Still, he believes if handled right, the 2021, smaller-scale Stampede could be a vehicle for both celebrating all those front-line people who pulled us through the pandemic and for marking the city's return to life.
“What we learned after the flood in 2013 was that the Stampede functions as a symbol of our community and community spirit,” says Nenshi, who also sits on the Stampede's board.
This year, he hopes, “we can use the Stampede to honour what came before and look forward to an optimistic future... It's not a year for a no-holds-barred, whoop-it-up attitude; it's a year for having fun, being optimistic and doing it in a prudent way.”
Optimism is Jeffrey Arndt's disposition these days, as he polishes his now well-worn white cowboy hat in anticipation.
“It's been a surprisingly effective all-weather hat this year,” he says with a laugh. “But it's really better suited for a day at the rodeo or lining up for a pancake breakfast.”
You can enter for a chance to win evening show, rodeo and general admission tickets from Postmedia Calgary and the Calgary Stampede.
Go to m.lndg.page/1qb5ws to enter to win one of 50 prize packs.