“Yahoo! Welcome to the Greatest Outdoor Show on Earth!”...

jennifer merrick & tourism calgary

...our WestJet pilot enthusiastically announced when the plane landed in Calgary during the Stampede. Yahoo? Wasn’t it yee haw? And the greatest show? Mmmm. But I was looking forward to my first visit to the Stampede, a 10-day western celebration and rodeo that Calgary has been hosting since 1912.

Two hours after landing, I was in the stands watching cowgirls zipping around barrels on horseback and cowboys riding bareback on bucking broncos. Interesting, yes, but as the sun beat down and the competitions blurred together, I couldn’t say I was in my element.

Until I put on a cowboy hat. Then, everything changed. Suddenly, the sun didn’t feel so hot (OK, that could have been the shade from the wide brim), but it was more than that. I suddenly felt part of something. Later, I found out I wasn’t the only one who’s had this ‘magic hat’ experience at the Stampede. “I’ve heard several similar stories,” said Cassandra Cummings, the rodeo’s archivist. She explained that volunteers used to give out the white cowboy hats at the airport.

“One visitor said she felt like she belonged when she put it on and cried when she took it off at the end of the trip,” Cummings said.

My reaction wasn’t quite so strong, but in the same way a lei put around your neck in Hawaii puts you in a tropical island mood, the cowboy hat ignited a western spirit I didn’t know I had. With the cowboy hat on, the bull riding was more heart stopping, the concerts and fireworks were louder and brighter, the crazy midway food tasted better and, of course, it was yahoo and not yee haw.

Is the Stampede the Greatest Outdoor Show on Earth? It is if you’re wearing a cowboy hat!

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