Wow! Are you planning on going for 9 days??
I went last year with my DH and DD (12). We had stayed the week in Banff at a timeshare and for the last night, I got a hotel in Calgary to facilitate the early morning flight home and so we could go to the Stampede that night as well.
We had a good time, but for us, it was very much like our county fair - with alot more crowds. Getting out of the stadium after the shows was very Disney like at closing... wall to wall people and you just shuffle along.
I didn't buy show tickets ahead of time because the prices seemed very high to me for mediocre seats. I bought 'rush' tickets - which are sold the day of, inside the grounds, at much better prices for the same mediocre seats. I must have got lucky because I literally waited a few minutes before I was at a window talking to the guy about which tickets I should buy. Later on I did see a longer line - maybe a 20-30 minute wait.
For the chuckwagon/rodeo I actually bought standing room at the rail - $25CDN each I believe. It was hot that day and in the sun so it wasn't so great. We did eventually sitonthe ground up against the stands - that worked fine and some shade was cast there. but here was the real downside.... even though we were 'at the rail', it's still pretty far from the action as there's a stage between the 'rail' and the arena adn the arena is lower so you've got prespective workign against you (becasue of the intervening stage). So we ended up watching the action of the giant screens. Well, I could have done that from home! Or the lounge or something. It ddin't feel special being there since we had to watch it all on TV anyway.
Also, with the chuckwagon races, about half of the race happens out of sight - behind the stands and buildings. It was cool to watch the wagons for the bit we could see but too much of it couldn't be seen. Disappointing.
Having learned the seat lesson, I did buy seats the evening performance and fireworks - I can't remember but I think they were about $45 CDN each. I do not know how previous year's shows were but I found the show we watch to be flat out bizarre. The story line was very weak/strange and frankly it seemed as if they booked a bunch of random acts and tried to tie it together with a story - and it just was, well, bizarre. That said, I did laugh alot thru it all because I imagined that if I was stoned and having some type of LSD trip, this would probably be what it would be like.
The fireworks however were very good.
We also enjoyed the few livestock type shows we saw. You have to get a seat early for those too as every seat on the bleaches gets taken.
If we ever went again (which I wouldn't mind doing but wouldn't rush to do either), I would definitely skip the rodeo and chucks due to not being able to see much and the view from the seats was even farther away than where we were. I would go to the eveing performance again as I can't imagine another show would be like the one we saw. We would definitely spend all our time bouncing from barn to barn to catch as many of the livestock related activites as we could. The general atmosphere is indeed lively and fun with a liberal dosage of mostly good natured drunks staggering around. Oh, and the food is typical high priced junk food (ugh).
Oh, and a tip. We got there early-ish on Friday (about an hour or so after opening time) and follwed the well marked signs right down to the grounds - and parked a short walk (maybe 50 yards) from an entrance gate - and for the same price as parking far away and having to walk FAR or metro in. I was surprised but there it was! It worked great. Leaving at night took time but not THAT long. So follow the signs right to the gorunds for parking - you can always loop back if needed for other parking options (there are many).
If you go, have fun. It definitely was cool to check it off our "been there, done that" list, even if it wasn't as special as we were hoping
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