The Calgary Stampede is famous for being the largest rodeo in Canada, but unfortunately the dates of this annual event did not coincide with our family road trip to the Alberta Badlands and Canadian Prairies. However, a quick search for rodeos in Canada showed that the Strathmore Stampede was taking place on our arrival weekend, so I quickly booked tickets, without really knowing what the reality of attending a rodeo would entail. So, what did we experience?
(cover photo credit: Instagram @SmytoCreative)
Where is Strathmore, Canada
Strathmore is a town in the province of Alberta, Canada, about 40 minutes’ drive east from Calgary International Airport.
What is the Strathmore Stampede?
The Strathmore Stampede is currently the 3rd largest rodeo in Canada, after the Calgary Stampede and Festival Western de St-Tite rodeo in Quebec. The Strathmore Stampede runs over several days in August each year and celebrates its 60th anniversary in 2025. It is very much an agricultural event aiming to bring the agricultural community together, and a key date in the Alberta calendar.
What are the ticket options for the Strathmore Stampede?
There are several different ticket options for the Strathmore Stampede, such as, tickets:
- for all three days of the Strathmore Stampede event.
- for all events happening on a single day, or
- for specific events on one day.
There are also a small number of tickets allocated for door sales, so you could chance it, and hope to buy tickets on the day if your plans are more fluid.
We bought tickets on-line from the Strathmore Stampede website before travelling to Canada which was easy enough and the tickets were emailed through straight away. As we were only in Strathmore for one day, we just bought tickets to the afternoon Rodeo event and the early evening Chuckwagon event with Running with the Bulls. The afternoon and evening sessions together cost $70 CAD (£40) for an adult ticket, but cheaper tickets were available for under 18s.
What was our experience of the Strathmore Stampede?
Free car parking at the Strathmore Stampede
Free car parking was available in a large field next to the Strathmore Stampede Showground, just a 5-minute drive from the centre of Strathmore itself. Golf buggies were available to ferry visitors between the car park and the Showground which was welcome and a fun way to arrive in style.
There were notices up in the car park, and on the route to the arena, warning of Gopher holes (“Don’t Gopher a Tumble!”). Welcome to Canada!
Outside the grandstands
Once your tickets and bags have been checked, you enter the showground area which comprises the grandstand, food trucks, merchandise, a mechanical bull (of course!), live music stage, farm animals, machinery, and a gigantic cowboy boot highlighting that we are in fact in the right place.
Note – It was fine to take SLR cameras into the event. It wasn’t clear on the Strathmore Stampede website whether this would be possible, but it was all very relaxed.
The Rodeo event from 1.00pm until 4.00pm
We took our seats in the main grandstand for the afternoon rodeo session and enjoyed people watching, and trying to work out what was going on….
The Rodeo session comprised of several different activities including:
- Bare back riding – the rider must stay on for 8 seconds.
- Barrell racing – the only womens’ event where cowgirls raced their horses around barrels hoping for the fastest time.
- Saddle Bronco – riders must stay on the horse for 8 seconds without getting bucked off.
- Team roping – one rider must capture the steer’s head with a rope and the other rider capture the steer’s hind legs with a second rope.
- Bull riding – the most dangerous of the rodeo rounds where the rider can only hold on with one hand and has to try and ride the bull for 8 seconds.
Extra entertainment in the grandstand
Inbetween the main activities in the grandstand, the entertainment kept coming in various forms:
- The Calgary Stampede Show Riders (‘ladies on horseback with flags’) who rode their horses very impressively in formation displays.
- Young children (about 8-12 years) trying to ride a lively miniature pony, who ending up being dragged along the floor of the arena by a rope attached to said pony, or
- Mouton Bustin’ where even younger kids in crash helmets were given the challenge of trying to ride a sheep. All of them fell off, and all of them cried…no comment!
Running with the Bulls and Chuckwagon racing from 6.00pm – 8.00pm
Running with the Bulls
Strathmore Stampede is apparently now the main rodeo in Canada for Running with the Bulls antics. Up to 70 runners (yes, you or me included!) can register to face 3 untamed bulls on a circular track – the objective, apart from not getting hurt, is to be ‘the bravest, most daring and crowd entertaining’ runner in order to win a large cash prize, awarded arbitrarily by Miss Rodeo Canada.
We could not believe what we were seeing – having left a career as an HR Manager, this triggered the ‘health and safety’ part of my brain. At one point we thought some runners in front of us had been garrotted by two bulls, until the cowboys appeared unharmed on the railings in front of us – it was only their red handkerchiefs which had been flying around, not their innards as we had feared.
Each to their own, but not even a million dollars would have encouraged me into that arena!
Chuck wagon racing
The chuck wagon racing brought our entertainment to a thundering conclusion, with four horse drawn wagons being loaded, and raced in a figure of 8 around barrels around the arena, before charging around a longer track behind the stadium to the finish line.
It was amazing that the chuckwagons did not crash into each other as there was not very much room for all the riders, horses and wagons on the track – great horsemanship and quite a spellbinding spectacle.
Why no yellow?
Apparently wearing yellow to a rodeo is considered bad luck amongst cowboys, a superstition which dates back to the early days of rodeo when the bullfighters, known as ‘rodeo clowns’, wore bright yellow to distract the bulls.
Where to stay for the Strathmore Stampede?
Strathmore is easily accessed from Calgary if you are based there, or there are several accommodation options in the town of Strathmore itself, but you should book these early as they book up around the Stampede dates.
We booked into a nearby AirBnB, only 11-minutes from the Stampede showground. We hired 3 bedrooms in a ranch house, which we shared with the owners and their two dogs. They cooked us a fantastic breakfast of steak burritos before we headed off to the next destination on our road trip – tick!
Reflections on our day at the Strathmore Stampede
As well as what was happening in the arena, I enjoyed sitting and observing the crowd – watching the locals bedecked in cowboy hats, cowboy boots and Wrangler (not Levi) jeans, meeting and greeting family and friends in their community. The event seemed like a true coming together of all ages which was good to see.
Also, I was glad not to have seen any animals injured during our time at the Stampede. I am under no illusions that the animals always escape unharmed and this was a concern of mine about attending.
Overall, it was a bit of a’ fever dream of a day’ – one minute we were sitting in an airplane flying from Dallas to Calgary, and 2 hours later we were immersed in all things cowboy at a rodeo in Canada. However, it was an unforgettable experience and a great way to stay awake and combat jetlag on our first night – getting straight onto local time. So glad we got our first rodeo stripes.
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