Overview The Calgary Stampede is a ten-day rodeo and exhibition on Stampede Park in Calgary's Beltline district, where chuckwagon racing was invented in 1923 and the wagons still race the half-mile track every night. It bills itself as the Greatest Outdoor Show on Earth, and a parade opens it. The Stampede is a not-for-profit supported by more than 3,000 volunteers, and outside the ten days Stampede Park hosts more than 1,200 events a year, many of them in a convention building the Stampede calls Western Canada's largest. On site The rodeo starts at 1:30 every afternoon and builds to Showdown Sunday. At 7:30 each evening the Rangeland Derby puts the chuckwagons on the half-mile track, then the relay races, then the Grandstand Show of song, dance and acrobatics, ending in fireworks. In Elbow River Camp the Kainai, Piikani, Siksika, Stoney Nakoda and Tsuut'ina First Nations of Treaty 7 put up 26 tipis, with artisans, bannock, Saskatoon berry jam and traditional dancing. Around them run the midway and the Stampede Market. Free programming fills the rest of the park: more than 100 hours of western shows and competitions, an agriculture zone with mini donkeys, llamas and piglets, the Dog Bowl, motocross stunts and a kids' zone. Four stages carry music. Audience In 2025 seven in ten guests came from the Calgary area, and 30.8% of Calgarians went. Visitors from elsewhere came mostly from Alberta and the western provinces; Australia, the United Kingdom and Ireland led international attendance, and Americans came mainly from California, Washington and Florida. Groups averaged four people, mostly families and friends, and the average guest stayed 7.7 hours and took in nine or more attractions per visit. Talent and Influencers Shania Twain was parade marshal in 2025, headlined the Stampede Concert Series and was honored with a bronze at the President's Reception. For 2026 the parade marshals were the Olympians Courtney Sarault and Mikael Kingsbury, and A$AP Rocky and Alanis Morissette played the concert series at the Scotiabank Saddledome, where a concert ticket also admits to the park. Track record Guy Weadick staged the first Stampede in 1912 with $100,000 in backing from four Calgary businessmen, and it became an annual event when it merged with the city's exhibition in 1923. The 2024 Stampede set its attendance record at 1,477,953. In 2025 the first Stampede Bowl opened the ten days with the Calgary Stampeders beating the Winnipeg Blue Bombers 37-16, and ladies' breakaway roping became the first rodeo event added since 1979. Brand presence Stages and venues across the park carry presenting partners, from the Rangeland Derby and the Grandstand Show to Elbow River Camp, the agriculture zone and the concert series. The chuckwagon drivers sell advertising on their wagons at the canvas auction, a practice that began in 1979; the 2025 auction raised $8.8 million, with the top bid for driver Jason Glass. Partners can take naming rights, official and exclusive category and supply rights, sampling and selling, contests with data capture, hospitality and ticketing, and community programs in youth, agricultural education, Indigenous initiatives and sustainability. In the Stampede's own survey, eight in ten visitors said interactive elements or giveaways made their visit feel more special.