60 Fun Facts About Calgary Stampede

In which month is the Calgary Stampede held every year?

The first Stampede in 1912 was actually staged in September; the modern ten-day July run dates from the merger with the Exhibition.

How does the Calgary Stampede bill itself?

It draws more than a million visitors a year to Stampede Park.

How many days does the modern Calgary Stampede run?

It was a six-day event until 1967, went to nine days that year and to its current length in 1968.

Which American trick roper organised the first Stampede in 1912?

He had come to Calgary in 1908 with the Miller Brothers 101 Ranch Wild West Show and wanted something more authentically 'wild west'.

What were the wealthy cattlemen who put up $100,000 to guarantee the 1912 Stampede called?

Pat Burns, George Lane, A. J. McLean and A. E. Cross saw it as a last celebration of their lives as ranchers.

How much prize money did cowboys compete for at the first Stampede in 1912?

More than 100,000 people attended the six-day event, which generated $120,000 in revenue.

After the 1912 Calgary success, Guy Weadick staged his second Stampede in which city, where it lost money?

A third attempt in New York State in 1916 lost money too, and he did not return to Calgary until 1919.

The 1919 Stampede in Calgary was staged in honour of whom?

It was billed as the Great Victory Stampede.

In which year did the Stampede merge with the Calgary Industrial Exhibition to become a permanent event?

Nearly 139,000 people came and the event turned a profit.

Which sport did the Stampede's founder invent for the first merged Exhibition and Stampede?

Only six teams raced that first year for a total purse of $275.

What is the official name of the Stampede's wagon-racing competition?

Its nicknames are less polite: 'the half-mile of hell' and 'the dash for cash'.

At the start of a chuckwagon race, what do the outriders toss into the wagon before mounting up?

Penalties follow if the stove is not loaded, a barrel is knocked over or an outrider finishes too far behind the wagon.

Which announcer, famed for 'and they're offfffff!', called the Stampede's wagon races for 45 years?

He retired in 2008 and was inducted into the Alberta Sports Hall of Fame in 2003.

Since 1979, how have chuckwagon drivers sold the advertising space on their wagon covers?

The auction totals are watched as a barometer of Calgary's economy.

Who was the last driver to win the Stampede's wagon race without a sponsored wagon, in 1956?

The first advertisement on a chuckwagon tarp had appeared back in 1941.

How much does each rodeo discipline's winner collect on the Stampede's championship Sunday?

A total of $1 million is paid out on championship day alone, making it rodeo's richest payout.

How many major disciplines make up the Stampede rodeo?

Bull riding, barrel racing, steer wrestling, breakaway roping, tie-down roping, saddle bronc and bareback, plus four novice events.

Most rodeo livestock comes from the Stampede Ranch, created in 1961 near which Alberta town?

The 22,000-acre ranch was North America's first of its kind, breeding bucking horses and bulls for rodeos as far away as Las Vegas.

Which First Nations cowboy became the only Canadian champion of the 1912 Stampede by riding Cyclone?

Cyclone had thrown more than 100 riders before the Kainai (Blood) cowboy stayed on him in the saddle bronc final.

The Treaty 7 nations' Stampede camp, long called the Indian Village, was renamed what in 2018?

The five nations of Treaty 7 erect tipis and hold pow wows on the river bank each year.

Which First Nation boycotted the 1950 Calgary Stampede after free admission for treaty-card holders was cancelled?

Violent thunderstorms that year spawned apocryphal stories of a rain dance meant to ruin the fair.

Which future prime minister briefly owned the exhibition grounds before selling them in the 1890s?

The site became Victoria Park, named for the queen, and remains the Stampede's home today.

The Stampede parade begins the festival on which day of the week?

It sets off shortly before 9 a.m. and parade day is treated as an unofficial civic holiday.

Whose presence at the 2011 parade pushed attendance to a record estimated 425,000?

William and Catherine also took in a private demonstration of rodeo and chuckwagon events despite protests from animal groups.

Which two Hollywood entertainers each served as Stampede parade marshal during the 1950s?

Queen Elizabeth II first visited in 1959 and returned to open the 1973 Stampede.

What happened when the Stampede's founder, fired by the exhibition board in 1932, sued for $100,000?

He stayed estranged for 20 years until being invited back as parade marshal in 1952.

The Stampede first topped one million visitors in which year?

Attendance has hovered around 1.2 million since 2000.

The Stampede set a then-record attendance of 1,409,371 while celebrating what?

Garth Brooks and The Beach Boys were booked for the Saddledome for the anniversary; the mark stood until 2024.

Why was the 2020 Stampede cancelled, the first cancellation in over a century?

Drive-through pancake pop-ups and the fireworks show went ahead on the original dates.

Two weeks before the 2013 Stampede opened, the grounds were badly damaged by what?

The Saddledome's concerts were cancelled, but the Stampede itself went ahead as promised.

What is the informal nickname of Calgary that reflects its Stampede identity?

It is also called the 'Stampede City', and its CFL team has been the Stampeders since 1945.

Which wagon driver's invitation to passers-by started the Stampede's free pancake breakfast tradition?

Dozens are now held across the city each day, hosted by everyone from churches to politicians.

The largest single Stampede pancake breakfast, feeding more than 60,000 people, is hosted where?

It takes 400 volunteers and marked its 50th anniversary in 2010.

What was Stampede Park's saddle-roofed arena originally called when it opened in 1983?

It hosted hockey and figure skating at the 1988 Winter Olympics and its saddle-shaped roof gave it the name.

Which 1950 arena, once Western Canada's largest, did the Saddledome replace as Calgary's top venue?

Louis Armstrong and the Minneapolis Symphony played there despite its notoriously poor acoustics.

The Stampede's 1959 exhibition hall was converted every winter into what?

In summer it served as the city's largest exhibition hall.

What is the large party tent, opened in 1993, that hosts country music on the Stampede midway?

In 2021 it became an open-air stage requiring proof of vaccination.

What is the midway's opening night, held the Thursday before the other events begin, called?

The midway is the only part of the Stampede run on a for-profit basis.

The Young Canadians grandstand troupe began in 1964 as local dancers auditioned to appear alongside which visiting act?

First called the Calgary Kidettes, they took their current name in 1968.

How often has the Calgary Stampede Showband been crowned world champion of marching show bands?

Its 150-plus members aged 16 to 21 played the opening ceremony of the 1988 Winter Olympics.

Who was the first Stampede Queen, chosen in 1946?

Two princesses joined the royalty the following year; contestants must be Alberta women aged 19 to 24.

Roughly how big is the volunteer organisation that runs the Stampede?

Nearly half have served more than 10 years, and some as long as 60.

In 2008 the Calgary Stampede itself was inducted into which institution?

The rodeo is one of the largest and most famous events of its kind in the world.

How many horses did critics tally as killed in Stampede wagon races between 1986 and 2015?

Nine died in 1986 alone, five of them in one crash, prompting sweeping rule changes for 1987.

Nine horses died in a 2005 Alberta centennial ride after falling from a Calgary bridge into what?

About 200 horses were spooked in the melee; officials vowed never to repeat the ride without safety guarantees.

Which local animal-welfare group works with the Stampede rather than opposing it, monitoring rodeo animals on site?

In 2009 both Calgary newspapers refused to run anti-rodeo ads sponsored by a rival humane society from Vancouver.

In which year was "Exhibition" dropped from the name, leaving it simply the Calgary Stampede?

Its year-round activities generate more than $540 million a year for Alberta's economy.

In which year did the Calgary and District Agricultural Society hold its first fair?

A quarter of the town's 2,000 residents turned out.

The 1908 event that first brought the Stampede's founder to Calgary was which federally funded fair?

The city spent $145,000 on six pavilions and a racetrack, and 100,000 people came in a single week.

The Stampede's founder was married to which famous cowgirl?

Weadick died in December 1953, the year after his reconciliation with the Stampede board.

Roughly what share of Stampede attendees come from the Calgary region itself?

Foreign visitors come mainly from the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia.

Which promotion, founded by Stu Hart in 1948, spawned a TV programme seen as a forerunner of Raw and SmackDown?

Its TV show is considered a forerunner of WWE's Raw and SmackDown and eventually aired in over 50 countries.

What single-day attendance record did the Stampede report on TC Energy Community Day in 2025?

Organisers said the 2025 event was on pace to beat the all-time record set only the year before.

The Stampede grew from six days to nine in 1967 and to ten in which year?

Attendance had passed 500,000 for the first time in 1962 and hit 654,000 by 1966.

The Stampede's golden age in the 1950s followed the 1946 discovery of which landmark Alberta oil well?

Calgary's population nearly doubled between 1949 and 1956, and attendance records fell almost every year.

In 1964–65 the Stampede Board tried to relocate the park to which former military site?

Civic and federal governments backed the move but nearby residents killed it, so the park stayed put.

Which programme introducing city schoolchildren to farming did the Stampede launch in 1989?

Agricultural producers now make up under 2% of Alberta's population, yet nearly 70% of visitors tour the Agriculture Zone.

How much retail space does the Stampede Market offer inside the BMO Centre?

Some vendors wait years to be admitted; its Western Oasis section sells cowboy-themed art and bronzes.

In 2021 US television coverage of the Stampede rodeo moved to which broadcaster?

In Canada the rodeo moved to Sportsnet the same year; CBS Sports Network had carried recaps in 2019.

In which month is Calgary said to experience an annual baby boom, nine months after the Stampede?

Lawyers also report a jump in divorce filings in the weeks after the event.