Stampede Fever Begins with a Parade!

Firstly let me tell you a bit about stampede.  Founded in 1912 The Calgary Stampede is a yearly 10 day long event that literally takes over the city.  The Stampede, also known as 'The Greatest Outdoor Show On Earth', boasts some of the biggest and most richest Rodeo competition attracting over 1 million visitors.  As well as the rodeo, the Stampede grounds are full of agricultural competitions, stage shows, music concerts, an amusement park, Chuckwagon racing, a market place, and displays and performances from the First Nations (to name but a few).  

Calgary is struck by Stampede fever for almost 2 weeks, when the city becomes one big party to complement the Stampede grounds.  There are free 'Stampede Breakfasts' everyday all over the city, where you can just turn up and be treated to sausages, pancakes, maple syrup, juice and coffee all whilst being entertained with a huge variety of musical and entertainment acts.  As Nige and I missed this last year as we were both working so are planning on making the most of them this year.   There are special events/parties at bars and restaurants and Nige and I have been invited with a group of people (from the hospital i was working at) for a stampede night out this friday.  There is also a  long list of artists and bands performing in the stampede grounds, including Bon Jovi for which we have tickets on the thursday night, and One Republic.  This year Calgary is also being treated to an ice show featuring both past and present Olympic medalists.  During Stampede it is difficult to see over the sea of denim and cowboy hats as residents and visitors alike will don the most appropriate attire for the festivities with the Calgary Stampede website stating the dress code as 'jeans'!!!!!  Now both Nige and I have obviously ensured that as long as we don't open our mouths and speak we'll blend in seamlessly with the locals by purchasing some key western items (pictures to follow in the next few posts!!)

So thats the basics for Calgary Stampede, and this is all kicked off with a huge parade in Downtown Calgary. Now we had missed this last year as we were both working so I was really excited about catching it, along with 350,000 other spectators and over 2 million Canadians watching it live on TV!  I had done my research and found out that although the parade doesn't actually start until 9 am, 10,000 plus people will arrive before 7:30 in order to secure a good viewing point!!!  Determined to get a good position the alarm was set fam \r 5:15am and by 6am we were ordering our breakfast at Tim Hortons ready for the 20minute train ride into Downtown.  Although we were rather weary, we were glad of the early rise as we managed to get a a prime position on the 2nd floor of a parking lot, directly overlooking the street!   

7:15am - Nige having a little sit down with the morning paper in our PRIME location!

Now due to the high number of spectators that arrive so early there is what's called a 'Parade Prelude' where from 7:30am to 9am dancers, mascots and entertainers travel along the parade route keeping us amused while we wait. 

About 20 minutes before the parade was due to begin, everyones attention was drawn to the sky as Canada's famous Snowbird jets, treated us to a 'fly by' of the parade route. Calgary had obviously decided that as we'd all got up so early, we needed waking up and what better way that that!!

The atmosphere was electric with cheering and clapping when they went past, especially as everyone had been half asleep and were quickly waking up whilst frantically fumbling round to find their cameras!!! (including us!) 

The Parade begun just after 9am and we were rewarded for our early rise.  The parade included, amongst other things, over 3,000 people and over 750 horses!  Yet again apologies for the photo quality, but as we still haven't brought a replacement camera, all our photos are courtesy of Nigel's iPhone.

Wide awake after our Snowbird wake up call!

The RCMP having a play on the motorbikes.

Harry the Horse, the Stampede mascot.

A selection of Calgary Stampede Queens and Princesses from 1953-2010.

One of a large number of groups of Scottish Bag-pipers!

An old fire cart, complete with a very well behaved Dalmatian in the front seat!

It was humbling when representatives and service personnel from all of the Canadian Armed Forces sparked a standing ovation, clapping and cheering from the crowd.

Representatives of the Treaty 7 First Nations dressed in their traditional dress.

Below is the first of a number of photos taken of the city's road sweepers, that were included every so often in the parades line up in order to keep the road clean 

(750 horses = a lot of pooh!)  I loved that fact that they were all dressed up so that they became part of the parade, brilliant! 

Introducing............the horse sweeper!

Now for the Bull sweeper!

Of corse we couldn't get distracted by all these cowboys and indians 

and what would a Calgary parade be without some hockey!

Yet after a minute of chanting "Go Flames Go" and having a large inflatable hockey

player pass by, we're all cruelly reminded that winter isn't too far away!!

This guy was extremely brave riding the huge bull, but Nige and I agreed that he's 

not half as brave as the guy who first tried to put on the saddle!!!

 

These horses were tiny!

These were smaller again...........

And smaller still.........

 

.....and these horses were so small they needed four of them to pull the cart!!!

The Chuckwagon Competitors.

These sheep couldn't believe their luck when they were put in a pen full of hay first thing this morning.  Little do they know that the next 10 days they'll be being chased by the nice looking dog at the front of the float!!

A cow sweeper!

A pony Sweeper!

A wonderful morning had by all, especially with such a diverse assortment of music, dancing and entertainment,.  We especially loved all the marching bands that were playing some great songs like 'Call Me Al', 'Eye of the Tiger' and the theme tune to 'The Magnificent Seven", (Google it if you're not sure, I promise you'll know it!!).  The parade went on for over 2 hours and after such an early morning and an energetic few hours shouting "YAHOO" and dancing to the music, when the parade finished we headed off for some ribs and wings (no joke!)....see i told you, say nothing and they have no idea that we were born in the UK!!!!

(DRUM ROLL PLEASE)

For the 'Grand Finale' ........................................................a five wide road sweeper formation, followed by a couple of tow truckS for any stragglers and a police car opening the road behind him, now thats what I call efficient!!!