Last week, I had the opportunity to experience the Calgary Stampede for the first time, which was a fantastic experience. For those of you that are not familiar with the Stampede, it is an annual rodeo, exhibition and festival held every July in Calgary, Alberta. The ten-day event, which bills itself as The Greatest Outdoor Show on Earth, attracts over one million visitors per year. It features the world's largest rodeo, a parade, midway, stage shows, concerts, agricultural competitions and chuckwagon racing.
The city of Calgary takes on a party atmosphere during Stampede; residents don Western outfits and events are held right across the city, including barbecues and pancake breakfasts. To really fit in with the locals I purchased a custom-made cowboy hat, which you can see me sporting in the photo. I got the hat from the same company that George Bush gets his cowboy hats from, and so I was in good company. That evening we went onto see the chuckwagon racing, rodeo and then the show with fireworks, acrobats, brass-band, singers and flyer motorbikes. The highlight being the chuckwagon racing, which involved wagons, four horses per wagon and a bunch of outriders, which thundered around the course at over 70 km per hour.
On the second night in Calgary, I was out on the town with my new cowboy hat and another one of my sales managers. We were an interesting sight - the British cowboy and a Chinese cowboy eating out in a sushi restaurant! You don't see that too often, even in Calgary.
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