Canada - Calgary Stampede & Heritage Park

Wibke Helfrich
Jul 3, 2024
5 min read

Updated: May 21

Calgary, Alberta's largest city, with its international airport is the first port of call for visitors to the Canadian Rockies. The famous Calgary Stampede - a huge rodeo event with a powwow - takes place here and the Heritage Park also takes you back to the Wild West. Is it worth a visit?

Rodeo Cowboy hat horse Stampede Calgary Canada

The Stampede in Calgary is loud, colourful and supposedly the biggest outdoor show in the world. Anyone who is still in full possession of their hearing in the evening has done something wrong. Music and announcements blast from loudspeakers. The countless fairground rides rattle, bang, roar and boom. A big band plays while a horse parade passes by.

Welcome to Cowtown

A cosmopolitan city in western Canada with numerous skyscrapers, Calgary owes its rapid growth to the oil industry. Calgary is still steeped in western culture, which has earned the city the nickname "Cowtown." This is evident at the Calgary Stampede, Canada's largest rodeo festival in July, which grew out of the former agricultural shows.

This year the Calgary Stampede will take place in Canada from 4. bis 13.7.2025 .

This can be seen at the Calgary Stampede, Canada's largest rodeo festival in July, which has evolved from the former agricultural shows.

Various competitions from rodeo to chuckwagon racing

For the ten-day Calgary Stampede, Alberta saddles up the horses and puts on the cowboy hats to welcome visitors from all over the world.

Chuckwagon racing Calgary Stampede horse rider competition canada Cowboy

The only people who stand out here are those not wearing cowboy hats.

During the event, over 100 athletes compete against each other in various competitions, including bareback riding, steer wrestling and bullriding. Cattle are caught with lassos, riders gallop around barrels at breakneck speed, men count every second they can stay seated on wild bucking horses or bulls - there are competitions with and without saddles. Relay races are a kind of relay race on horseback. A team of four riders ride one after the other on the same horse at a hunting gallop around the track. The relay handover is the change of horses, so to speak. The best-known competition is ‘chuckwagon racing’, which has been held since 1923. The aim of this race is to see how quickly a team can clear its ‘camp’. To do this, the participants throw tent poles and a barrel, which represents a camping cooker, onto the back of the covered wagon, jump on their horses and follow the wagon, which has to drive in a figure of eight around two barrels before rounding the race track.

With prize money of 2 million dollars for the winner, it's like a giant game show. But animal rights activists are taking to the barricades: Is the event, which is over 125 years old and steeped in history, still in keeping with the times?

First Nation dancer Indigenous Indian woman colourful dresses

Insight into Indigenous traditions at a Powwow at the Calgary Stampede

Things are a little quieter at the Elbow River Camp. Since 1886, the indigenous people of the five nations - Tsuu T'ina, Piikani, Stoney, Kainai and Siksika - have been building their tipis here, holding powwows, offering arts and crafts and letting visitors participate in their traditional culture. Even in times when the Department of Indian Affairs tried to prohibit the First Nations from their culture, this tradition was continued: every year an Indian princess from one of the five nations is chosen to represent them at the Stampede.

This year's Princess of the First Nations is Pacey Strangling Wolf. Pacey is a 25-year-old jingle dress dancer from the Kainai Nation.

https://www.calgarystampede.com/

The history of the Stampede

Before the first Europeans settled the area around Calgary, the area south-east of the Canadian Rocky Mountains was home to the Blackfoot, whose traces can be traced back at least 11,000 years. The first white settlers arrived around 1860, mostly to hunt bison. In 1883, the development of the settlement picked up speed when Calgary was connected to the Canadian Pacific Railway. Settlers, who could now travel quickly by railway from the east coast, were given land and the population grew rapidly. At the same time, cattle ranchers from the United States to the south sought new grazing grounds for their cattle and drove their herds further and further north into the Alberta prairies.

You can enlarge the pictures by clicking on them

Calgary became the centre of cattle breeding and cowboys. A tradition that is celebrated every year with the Calgary Stampede. The roots of the event go back to 1886, when the Calgary and District Agricultural Society organised its first agricultural fair. It wasn't until 1912 that rodeo competitions were also held - the Stampede was born.

Canada - as it was 100 years ago - in Calgary Heritage Park

If you want to see what Canada looked like 100 years ago (or more), Calgary Heritage Park is the place to be. The exhibits cover the history of Western Canada from the 1860s to the 1950s. Many of the buildings are historic and have been transported to the park to be displayed.

Click on the first picture to start the photo gallery

Some of them are furnished with original items. The staff also wear historical costumes and you can travel the parc by old cars, trains and horse-drawn carriages. Old houses, farms, trains, ships, tipis, etc. have been collected from all over the region and rebuilt here to form a huge open-air museum. Visitors can stroll through the streets, ride on a steam locomotive, visit old forts and watch craftsmen at work. There are events depending on the season - in autumn, for example, at Halloween and Christmas. Great fun for all ages and open all year round.

https://heritagepark.ca/