Calgary Special Events

To celebrate the season and showcase local arts, culture and sports, Calgary Winter Festival takes place for 11 days in February. The festival, which takes advantage of the venues from the 1988 Winter Olympics, features dogsledding, snowboarding and the Winter Village.

Calgary International Children's Festival, which begins the third Wednesday in May and continues for 5 days, draws performers from such locales as Peru, Germany, Russia and Zimbabwe. The festival's many offerings include music, puppetry, dance and storytelling.

Despite a focus on the modern oil and gas industry, Calgary citizens recall their past starting the first Friday after Canada Day (July 1) with The Calgary Stampede (officially known as The Calgary Exhibition & Stampede). This 10-day Wild West exhibition features a rodeo, chuck wagon races, livestock shows, a re-creation of a Plains Indian village, beach-themed attractions, educational displays, shopping, extreme sports events and a midway. Parades, fireworks, street dancing, pancake breakfasts and other activities create a carnival-like atmosphere.

Families enjoy the cultural and musical events that take place during the Calgary Folk Music Festival, held for 4 days in late July.

GlobalFest takes place in August and features such events as an international fireworks competition and a multicultural celebration. Afrikadey! celebrates African culture through traditional and contemporary music, crafts, food and special scheduled events. Venues for the popular mid-August event are found throughout the area, with festivities concluding at Prince's Island Park.

During Labour Day weekend BBQ on the Bow offers a barbecue competition, live performances by local bands, a children's craft tent, and vendors selling food samples and take-home goods. Jazz musicians and jazz enthusiasts gather in early September at the C-Jazz Festival. Also taking place in early September at the Spruce Meadows outdoor equestrian center, off Hwy. 22X (Spruce Meadows Trail) and Macleod Trail, is the Masters Tournament. Other racing and dressage events are held at the center throughout the year.