Dan Campbell

Review of The Calgary Stampede

Stampede is always a lot of fun, enjoy the wide va...

Stampede is always a lot of fun, enjoy the wide variety of activities, sights & sounds. There's always a lot to do and see each time! On the last night of 2017 there was an awesome Showband performance on the steps of the Saddledome that went on for over an hour! I was also there on Thursday night (a beautiful, hot day!) and was pleased to find out about the $5 admission which I got to take part in

One bug in the system occurred in 2016. I have been going every year since 2011 & for the most part have been having good experiences. On the last Sunday I went out of the park to put some stuff in my car and returned about 45 min later. The gate supervisor claimed that the stamp on the back of my hand was invalid, even though they had just given it to me an hour later. On the principle of the thing I decided to go in anyways, since I should not have to pay twice for the same day. He told me we coulod continue talking about it, but had to do so from outside the park. I refused and so then he called in two police officers. They were very reasonable to talk to, although one of them wanted to kick me out regardless of whether I was right. I had entered the park initially with a ticket for the Grandstand show and so scanning this they could see it had been used already, but the police decided that if my ticket was still valid at the gate of the Grandstand then they would let me in. I agreed and so we walked over there, where the other officer scanned my ticket and found it to be valid. I was able to watch the show and enjoyed it, but was a little shook up by the experience of having to go through this to receive what I had paid for. There was either disorganization & incompetence or outright dishonesty at the gate, as they had clearly given me a stamp but then claimed it was not the symbol for that day. Whatever it was it shouldn't have happened and was not my fault, but until the cops showed up they were treating me like I was the bad guy trying to get in with a fraudulent stamp.

So I'm hoping that Stampede as an organization can learn from this and do more to treat their patrons better. Plus this is supposed to be about hospitality, right?