I have attended the Stampede a half a dozen times as a child and later on in my adolescence. Just recently I have gone again and let me just say how much it sucked. Other than the obvious observation of a bigger theme park of ridiculous things to do, it just seems like a glorified food fare. It is expensive and it is crowded, the sea of cowboy hats don't resonate anything emotional nor nostalgic for me.
I don't want to see a dream house of an obvious "burb" home and even more purchase a ticket to win the damn thing. I don't want to listen to country music or buy a ticket to have to listen to it, nor do I want a giant pretzel with salt. The only thing I like about the Calgary Stampede is the corn dogs with mustard but I can buy these at half the cost with a hot dog vender on the street during a regular city day.
There was a lack of Stampede spirit this year downtown, I didn't even know the Stampede was in town, plus Calgary saw a downfall of folks travelling out of town in motor homes to visit our fair city. Perhaps it was because of our economic times or perhaps, the Calgary Stampede needs to reinvent itself, to include a more ethnic population and to get with modern times, wake up Calgary Stampede its 2009!!!