Gallery: Calgary Stampede and Canada's top 10 summer rodeos

 

Check out Calgary's 'Greatest outdoor show on Earth' and other summer rodeos from across Canada, according to WorldWeb.com

 
February 1, 2011
 
 
 
Check out Calgary's "Greatest Show on Earth" and the other top summer rodeos, according to WorldWeb.com.
 

Check out Calgary's "Greatest Show on Earth" and the other top summer rodeos, according to WorldWeb.com.

Photograph by: Archive, Calgary Herald

 
Check out Calgary's "Greatest Show on Earth" and the other top summer rodeos, according to WorldWeb.com.
Established in 1920 and held over the Canada Day long weekend, the Williams Lake Stampede continues to be one of the country’s biggest rodeos.
The Handhills Stampede is held in the badlands of southern Alberta. Started in 1917, the three-day stampede is held at the end of May and is considered the oldest consecutive rodeo in Alberta.
Interior Provincial Exhibition & Stampede (IPE) in Armstrong, B.C. is five-day event, held at the beginning of September, that has been running for over 100 years and attracts thousands of city and country folk alike to the Okanagan Valley.
The Calgary Stampede needs no introduction. The 10-day event is Canada’s largest rodeo and quite rightfully bills itself “The Greatest Outdoor Show on Earth.” Attended by over a million visitors each year — many from around the world — the fever boils out of Stampede Park in downtown Calgary to take over the entire city in a frenzy of cowboy hats, Wrangler jeans, country music and pick-up men.
Deemed Canada’s largest gay rodeo, the three-day Canadian Rockies International Rodeo’s (CRIR) adds to the fun of traditional events with popular competitions such as goat dressing and wild drag. But that isn’t all that is unique about the CRIR. Held in Calgary at the end of June, men and women compete in parallel events so it might be the only rodeo in Canada where fans can watch cowgirls tough it out as bull-riders or cowboys round the barrels for a change.
The Festival Western de Saint-Tite in Quebec is Canada’s second largest rodeo and rules the roost on the Eastern circuit. Held in mid-September, the festival is often referred to as the “Woodstock of Rodeo” as over 450,000 visitors converge on the village of Saint-Tite for 10 days of North America’s top athletes battling the clock and each other for over $300,000 in prize-money.
The Innisfail Professional Rodeo is a favourite on the rodeo circuit, top riders, ropers and wrestlers come from all over western Canada and the US for top prize money—it’s one of Canada’s highest paid rodeos—and fans come for an atmosphere unlike any other—a rodeo campout on the Daines Rodeo Ranch near Innisfail that is pure no frills, all thrills action.
The Manitoba Stampede — held in the community of Morris — is known affectionately as the “Big M” and is the only rodeo in the province that features on the Canadian Professional Rodeo Association circuit.
The Cloverdale Rodeo and Country Fair kicks off the summer rodeo season with some serious eight-second action. Held over the May long weekend in Surrey, British Columbia, Cloverdale is Canada’s fifth largest rodeo and brings the wildest new colts to the arena for some kicking and spinning that beats even the most gripping midway ride
Every Canada Day long weekend, contestants make their way from as far as Colorado to south of Edmonton just to compete in the Ponoka Stampede. Canada’s largest six-day rodeo, Ponoko is a big fan favourite too and resembles the Calgary Stampede in its younger days for its festive atmosphere, top-class competition, professional chuck wagon races and kids’ wild pony races.
 
 
 
 
 
 

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