[salmonfella]

So who's going? it looks to be amazing 10 days of drinking,Hot cowgirls and music gigs reminds me of the Fleadh that's held here in Ireland every summer. I hope to be nicely settled in Calgary for this i might not even look into full time work till its over as i want to be able to party hard might try to pick up a causal job that will allow to earn some coin while still having the time of my life chasing chicks

Any veteran's want to give me a lowdown of what to expect etc? or if any one wants to meet up for a few let me as i will be braveing it solo every night yes i have done a 5 in a row here in Ireland so gonna try for the ten in a row haha.

I just keep watching the videos on this website oh i cant wait http://cs.calgarystampede.com/

So please tell me of your past Calgary stampede story's

[kinjutsu]

I've been there a few times growing up.
Its like a mini Las Vegas for 10 days. Lots of girl wanting to "party" and meet guys.
I'm at work right now so i can't go into too much detail but i'll post a super detailed reply later on today.

[kinjutsu]

I've attended the Calgary Stampede many many times. If your game is decent easy 1 or 2 notches across the 10 days.

Calgary basically stops during the stampede. Corporate Calgary throws bbq's and stampede breakfasts for the entire week.

Your best bet is to book your accommodations now. The city's population swells considerably by about 150,000 people during this time. This is not an exaggeration.
You probably want to stay near the downtown area because of the close proximity to the stampede grounds (10 minute walk).
EVERY night club will have some sort of stampede promotion going on. They will be packed and the line-ups will be long so decide early that day if you're gonna focus on day game(on the stampede grounds or stephen ave) or night game. Both are extremely viable.


The Stampede Grounds
There is 2 major entrances and 1 minor sorta not used that much entrance.
You best bet to get in quickly is to purchase passes ahead of time. The line ups to purchase admission can be as long as 2 hours.
A local convenience store chain called "Mac's" always has some kind of promotion for reduced cost of pass if you buy a few coca cola products.
Here's the link: http://cs.calgarystampede.com/info/deals...deals.html
"SAVE 30%! Purchase two Calgary Stampede Park admissions for the special price of $25 and receive any two Coca-Cola 591 mL beverage products FREE. You could save over $11, only available at Mac’s,June 10-July 14, while supplies last. Valid July 4 to 14, 2013."

Saves you a few bucks and gets you in with no line.

Once inside the park there is various food vendors as well as a few 18+ only alcohol areas. There is no open liquor allowed on the grounds but many kids just fill up a coke bottle with half rum or whatever they like. I've done it.

There are many many girls running around in groups.
Watch out for the underage girls though. With respect to the density of the park there is a unusually high amount of underage girls dressed extremely slutty. Not such a problem, but there is a highly visible police presence as well as plain clothes officers. There is also an increased violent crime rate as well. Think over capacity night club with rednecks and girl girls in cowboy boots
At the park everything costs more. The mark up on stuff is 2-3 times what you'd normally pay for it. Same goes for bars, clubs and pubs. Expect to spend a lot money drinking and eating during this time.

The Grounds close at midnight each night but they'll start to refuse entry just before 11pm. The police siege on the park at this time. Expect an extremely high visible police presence here. Like groups of 30-40 police standing around waiting for fights to start.

The Fridays and Saturdays will be the most target rich but you'll be dealing with lots of wannabe thugs and large groups of girls with multiple mother hens trying to impede your mission for poon.

Night Game/clubbing

I've had the most success during stampede is on a pub crawl.
These ones are essentially are a normal pub crawl on steroids.
There are 2 companies that host pub crawls in Calgary:
http://www.bustloose.com/
or
http://www.partymachine.ca/store/index.html

Either will do. They hit up the same clubs but in different order.
They start around 2-3pm in the afternoon and drop you off at the last place around 8pm.

The majority of the girls on these are looking to hook up. I've had so much success going on the stampede ones that's why i continue to go.
I was sucking on a girls tits in the back of a bus and her girl friends were cheering me on...
I'm just shy of a 1/1 ratio for bangs on these pub crawls.
There will always be a girl that lost her friends or is just hanging out by herself in the back of the bus.

The major places people will hit up are:

Cowboys
http://www.cowboysnightclub.com/
Regular hick bar. Long line ups to get inside, most of the out of town girls will flock here 1st. See the huge line and go else where.


Ranchmans
http://www.ranchmans.com/
Another hick bar. It's about a 15 minute drive/cab ride from stampede park. Line ups will be huge as well. I avoid all together because there is no back-up option in the area.
It is 20 minutes from downtown where everyone else is.

17th Ave SW
This is the main drag of Calgary. Plenty of night spots here. Whatever your flavor is.
Hipster? Ship and Anchor. http://www.shipandanchor.com/
Shallow party girl? Melrose Cafe & Bar. http://www.melrosecalgary.com/
EDM e-tard? The Republik http://www.therepublik.ca/

The Roadouse
http://www.roadhousecalgary.com/
Freshly 18, wanna use my i.d. and get shit faced club. The staff is decent. Line up here will mostly consist of people who couldn't get into Cowboys.

Vinyl
http://www.vinylandhyde.com/
The top floor is a dance club. The bottom floor is a lounge with a pool table.
Another place for the "I just turned 18 crowd". Expect to see fights here.

West
http://www.westrestaurantandbar.com/
This is the only high end joint in Calgary. The layout is dope. They have a rooftop patio. There is a line up but $40 to the bouncer and you're up there.
Girls are dressed very nice here. No girl will be wearing jeans, uggs or sweat pants. They have a strict dress code for guys and girls. A few of my friends have been refused entry here because they came solo or didn't have any girls in the group.

Day game
If you want to day game without paying the entrance fee to the grounds, your best bet will be along 8th ave SW from 1st Street SE to 5th Street SW otherwise known as "Stephen Ave".
There is normally plenty of targets during the summer, but during stampede it gets a bit crowded.
There is also the "TD Square" shopping mall that runs parallel to Stephen Ave.


I think that's the basics of the stampede as it relates to hunting poon.
This can sorta double as a Calgary, AB Data Sheet.
I encourage more input as I'm probably forgetting a lot.

[WesternCancer]

I might be down to meet up depending on CASHflow and free time. What days is it?

[whyteave]

I'LL BE THERE FOR SURE! Many thanks to kinjutsu for the info!

[kinjutsu]

Hey Western Cancer,

It officially starts on July 5-14.
However the week leading up there is still plenty of people here.

[scotian]

kinjutsu, excellent intel on the Stampede and I agree with everything you wrote, guys you can take what he says to the bank, +1 from me. Good call on the pub crawl buses, I never did that but know friends who have and they all say the same thing, guaranteed success. Now, as a former Calgary resident (2007/8) and Stampede vet, there's a couple of things I can add;

Nashville North: This is inside the Stampede grounds, its a big tent set up and the place gets really packed, so full that the line to get in can take a few hours, so either get there earlier or try to smuggle in a bottle of booze to drink while waiting. I hate waiting in line but two years ago I got in and pulled a girl with giant boobs out of there within 20 minutes, only to be C-blocked by some random friends she knew from high school who she hadn't seen in a couple of years, talk about bad luck, we were waiting for a taxi, it was that close.

Where to stay: As Kinjutsu says, closer to the Stampede grounds and downtown, the better but don't sweat it if you can't get a place right down there as the LRT (C-train) runs through downtown and one of the stops is right at the Stampede grounds. Its a good way to get to the action but it closes around midnight so you'll be cabbing it back and be warned, Calgary is a huge city area wise and $40-60 taxi rides are not unheard of if you're staying in the burbs.

I'm familiar with most of the clubs on Kinjutsu's list and his advice is spot on. Ranchman's is definitely a hick bar but its big and there will be line ups there in the early afternoon during Stampede. Its funny, before moving to Calgary I would never be caught dead in a country western style bar, but I ended up living a 5 minute walk from that joint when I first moved to Cowtown (Acadia area, just off South Land and Macleod) and used to hit it up regularly, easy pickings.

Kinjutsu, have you ever been to the bar called Black Betty? I haven't been yet but a good friend of mine from back home (also a former roommate and former Sunshine girl) is working there now, she used to work at Snatch (closed now) a few years ago. Any idea of how Black betty is?

Guys start making the plans now, I won't be able to make it this year as I'll be out of the country but a RVF Stampede meet up would be amazing.

[kinjutsu]

Thanks for the props Scotian

Yeah Black Betty is good. It has a good vibe. I like the music because its not top 40 garbage.
I haven't pulled from there though. Not into the girls there for some reason. I'd definitely chill there with my friends though.

Ouch $40-60? I'm in the north end and I'm about $25 to get home from the downtown core.

I forgot to mention that the trains run 24 hours a day during stampede. Not the buses though, certain routes do run later though.

[Atlantic]

plus one from me too man. Hopefully I make it down there

[salmonfella]

Thanks for the info lads as always some great advice i have the info copied and saved on to the kindle took a while but got it on as a pdf. i will try make it out every night a day for it sounds to be a great 10 days. i would imagine everything is a lot more expensive alright i see the wicked hostel is over double the price to stay there over the 10 nights.We should defiantly try to get a meet up 1 of the nights.. thanks again to scotian and kinjutsu for a great Calgary stampede data sheet.

[BIGINJAPAN]

You guys are missing some of the big venues for stampede.

First one is the cowboys tent. Not the club. If you have no connections there you need to be in line around 4pm on the weekends, weekdays you can probably show up at 7 and get in around midnight. I am not kidding, they basically fly pornstars in and the hottest bartenders in north america show up to work there. I wouldn't bother hitting on them though as they work 12 hour days and most are just there to make a bunch of money and get the fuck out of there. A lot of local hot girls work there and are easier to hit on and fuck.

Wildhorse saloon is the epicenter for partying during the stampede. Cowboys was closed down for a few years and they stepped in and took over and it is still going strong. It is on 6th avenue connected to local 522 I believe. Again massive line ups start as soon as that place opens for the day. DO NOT WEAR SANDALS EVER THAT WHOLE WEEK. I promise you that even 3rd world countries are not as dirty as they tents.

I personally do not like going down to the stampede grounds during the day for the fair. For whatever reason that week in Calgary is super fucking hot out. So Imagine a 100,000(no exaggeration) people wandering around a gigantic parking lot with 30-35 degree heat going on. Not to mention the shit head punks running around.

I will say though you need to check out the chuckwagon races at some point. It is a lot of fun and getting general tickets is not too expensive. You get to stand right at the start and finish line and drink your face off. It is in the early evening and the grand stand blocks the sun so it isn't unbearable heat beating down on you.

Also this year is a bunch of new shit opening up and outdoor patios. West has the best one going so far. It is huge, although a lot of people try to get into the tents around the city so this place will be hit and miss during the stampede. Craft is a huge pub that will be opening a new a patio this year that will be huge. The new national is opening up any day now will also have a new huge rooftop patio. 1410 is a pub that has a rooftop patio they opened last year. It is kind of small, but I do enjoy the pub. Usually have DJs in there on weekends as well.

If you are coming from out of town best to get a place right downtown. Calgary has some of the worst cab service on the planet and for the most part public transportation blows. The LRT has gotten better, especially with the west leg finished, but overall it still blows compared to major cities. If you stay straight north of downtown you have no train access or if you get a place anywhere in the SW besides straight west of DT you are nowhere near a train line. Same goes for the deep SE. You will find cheaper places to rent for the week but you will be paying a fortune for cab rides. The train line goes straight south of DT but the problem is Calgary is also very spread out and if you are in a community that is further west or east it can be an impossible walk to the train station. I bet some of those SE communities if you were to try and walk to the nearest station it would take 2 hours.

Finally if you can't get laid during the stampede then I would kill yourself. I have been to pretty much every festival or wild party in North America and the Calgary Stampede is by far and away the easiest to get laid at.

[Rang off the Pipe]

I'd like to hear how to it is from the people going. Of course, Calgary was hit with some nasty floods recently; and a number of events have already been and will probably be cancelled. I've got a friend out there and plan to go next year.

[TheCaptainPower]

Awesome thread, just added this to my bucket list for 2014.....!!

[Lothario]

Great Info Kinjutsu, Biginjapan and Scotian. Kindly share the stories after the Stampede, In the previous years members have made plans but didn't go. would be great to hear some recent action laden stories ......

[scotian]

I was going to skip Stampede this year but I've been working like a dog lately and could use a break to party for a bit. I think I"m gonna hit it up this year, fly into Cowtown from Regina and party hard for a few days.

If any of you want to meet me in Calgary during the last few days of Stampede (July 10-14th), let me know, I"m going to ask for time off tomorrow and book my ticket ASAP.

Should be a good time: RVF Calgary Stampede 2014

[MrRoundtree]

I wanted to hit Banff on my turnaround but the stampede looks fun! Are there just canadian tourists there?

[silver_eagle]

Is there way to go there but on budget? Like some cheaper apartments? Agencies in my country rarely have some offers for Calgary and when they do they get weary expensive.

[scotian]

(07-02-2013 10:29 PM)MrRoundtree Wrote:  

I wanted to hit Banff on my turnaround but the stampede looks fun! Are there just canadian tourists there?

The large majority of people there are Canadians but you'll definitely run into Americans and the occasional European.

(07-03-2013 12:59 AM)silver_eagle Wrote:  

Is there way to go there but on budget? Like some cheaper apartments? Agencies in my country rarely have some offers for Calgary and when they do they get weary expensive.

I looked on Airbnb and a lot of the cheaper ones ($60-100) are sold out, myself, I'm going to try to crash at friends and family's places, may not be ideal locations in Calgary (burbs) but I'll have more cash to blow on drinking, which I will be doing a lot of.

This Stampede will definitely be different because of the massive floods the city experienced a couple of weeks ago, usually, many Calgarians leave the city for the Stampede to get away from the madness. This year will be different as so many people have work to do on their houses and properties, many of the locals will be sticking around and I can guarantee they will be partying hard.

Anyway, I got approved for my time off and will be flying into Calgary on July 11th and staying until the 16th so will have 4 days of hard Stampede style partying and one day of recovery until it back to work.

Anyway, if any local Calgarians want to meet up or the Etown Oil Sands crew or even people from out of town, get in touch with me and will make this happen.

I'm probably going to end up on a Bust Loose pub crawl party bus at some point: http://www.bustloose.com/

Stampede 2014 is gonna kick ass!

[TheSlayer]

I was there last year for the 100th anniversary. It was an amazing time. Is this year's gonna be just as good because of the floods. Let me know how it goes. My only complaint about the Stampede was that Nashville North only sold beers and watered down JD and Coke cans. Come on, now. At many clubs it was impossible to do shots or find hard liquor.

I will also say girl were very easy to open and there were many girls out in groups small groups of 2s and 3s. My friend said usually it's not this easy but the quality is and the female to male ratio is very good.

[WesternCancer]

jealous of you guys that are able to go!!!

pulled from facebook:

[scotian]

I'm flying into Calgary on the 11th at noon and will be booking a hotel for Thursday til Sunday tonight, do any of you guys have recommendations for the best place to stay logistics wise?

I don't know if its because of the recent floods and last minute cancellations, but most of the hotels seem to be reasonably priced in the $100-150 range. I plan on staying near downtown but I'm not sure if I should get a hotel close to the Stephen Ave area or closer to 17th ave, both areas have plenty of bars and clubs near them, I want to be close to the outdoor party tents that they have set up in random parking lots. Anyone in Calgary know where these places are this year?

Hotels I'm looking at so far: The Westin (4th ave 3rd street), Ramada (Stephen Ave 6th street), Sandman Hotel (7th ave 8th street).

I'm also going to book a night on a Bust Loose party bus

[Rang off the Pipe]

It seemed like stuff went pretty decently despite the floods. Any reports from members here?

[scotian]

(07-21-2013 06:05 PM)Rang off the Pipe Wrote:  

It seemed like stuff went pretty decently despite the floods. Any reports from members here?

I hit up Stampede from Thursday until Monday morning and from a game perspective it wasn't very good for me and I'd say it was the most disappointing of the six Stampedes I've been to over the years. First thing that went wrong was that all of those good hotel deals I saw during my preliminary searches on Expedia ended up being sold out and the cheapest I found was in the $250-300 range, prices I wasn't willing to pay. I ended up booking a room at a place on Airbnb that was close to a C-train station (Franklin), not too far from the action, but it wasn't advertised very well and I ended up in a house of two elderly people when I was expecting more privacy.

Its been two years since I last hit up Stampede and my crew of friends down there in Calgary has changed a lot, my main man is wifed up with a kid now and is on a tight leash and another guy I was expecting to come down from Etown cancelled at the last minute. That didn't phase me too much and I was ready to party, especially since I was coming off a 30 day stint of work in an industrial shit hole, but I went a little over board with an old friend of mine from back in Nova Scotia, we hit up a house party and I won't go into too much detail but I got on the gear and basically was awake for 36 hours, I'll let you read into that as you will, so Friday was fucked, I didn't wake up until 10pm.

I hit up Black Betty, a bar downtown where my friend is a bar tender, I rolled with a buddy of mine and later on forum member Ferro of the RVF oil sands crew showed up. It was a decent time as my friend paid for all of our drinks all night, there was some decent talent there but it was one of those ethnic bars where everyone sticks to their own kind, not really my scene and we really should have hit up a party tent that night. Saturday night I went to a house party with a bunch of people back home, again, I blew it by not going out as no one wanted to join me at the bars, but it was still a good time partying with friends I haven't seen in awhile.

Sunday was decent, met up with another buddy from back home on 17th for drinks, lots of people out then we ended the night down at the Stampede grounds where we saw Nelly perform, good show and lots of girls running around but I didn't go too hard as I had to be on a flight back to work the next morning.

So that's it, Stampede 2013 ended up being a big family/friends reunion for me as I haven't been to Calgary in a couple of years and I had lots of people wanting to see me, which I did and it was good in that sense. I walked around Calgary quite a bit and the city has improved a lot since I was last there, lots of new bars and restaurants. I didn't go to the Stampede grounds as I've been there before but judging by the amount of people around downtown, it didn't seem like the floods had too much of an effect on the overall vibe.

Looking back I'm disappointed in myself for not going out harder and pushing myself, maybe it was because I just wanted to take it easy after working for a month straight but it didn't seem like I had the energy to do it this year, oh well, we'll see if I make it to Stampede 2014.