The Calgary Stampede parade is doing an about face and will be travelling in the opposite direction this year on Friday July 7, parade day.
The parade will follow the same route but will start on 9th Avenue and 1st Street Southeast moving in the reverse direction toward 6th Avenue and 3rd Street Southeast.
“This year we’re moving our form up area to the south end of the East Village which will allow us to lessen our impact on the congestion on the residential part of the community,” says Michael Wetherup, Calgary Stampede Parade committee chair.
The parade has been following its current route since the 1950s.
“The organization’s been looking at this for the past three years and it also allows for easy access and egress for the citizens of East Village so we’re really quite excited about the new initiative,” says Dave Sibbald, Calgary Stampede president and chairman of the board.
Parade participants can often be in the residential area a full two days before the parade begins.
“We, in the past, have been spread throughout the entire East Village from one end to the other with all our entries the floats and the bands and it just takes up a lot of room and therefore it makes it harder for the residents to move in and out,” says Wetherup.
The horses will still be staged in Fort Calgary.
Wetherup says starting on 9th Avenue means volunteers have that whole area to line the parade up.
Stampede Park is also extending free admission on parade day until 1:30 p.m. which Sibbald says is not an attempt to get better attendance numbers.
“Last year we had record rainfall. None of us can predict or control the weather. But despite the weather our guest experience surveys of those leaving have never been higher,” says Sibbald.
Sibbald anticipates a number of announcements in the next few weeks in advance of Calgary Stampede 2017 which runs from July 7 through 16.
