Calgary Stampede, Calgary, Alberta Canada
The Beautiful Dangerous Sport
My original title for this post was going to be “Black man at Calgary Rodeo” but as you can see this is very generic and it takes away from the overall great experience that I had there. Also, I didn’t want to come across as the only or first black person at this rodeo. I wanted to use this to highlight the overall experience and explain why I chose this event to attend and hopefully break down barriers that are preventing people of color from stepping outside of their comfort zones.
So why the Calgary Stampede?
I think it was just by luck. My original plan was to spend a few days at Banff and just hang out in Calgary once I was done. After seeing the event flyers for the stampede I started to do some research. I realized that this event was considered to be the world’s largest outdoor rodeo accompanied with concerts and festivals.
Never been to a rodeo and wanted the overall experience. I heard about rodeos growing up but never really considered it to be a “black” event. By the way isn’t true. There are black cowboys and black rodeos that happen across the United States. So that was a barrier that was immediately torn down once I started doing more research.
I got to wear a cowboy hat with hoochie daddy shorts! Just kidding. I did buy a cowboy hat and the local Calgarians loved it!
