Just got back from spending the past week out east (Tor/Ott/Mon) and two major observations.
1 - the significant awareness of Stampede this year. Whether it was the national media, the local media, advertising or just conversation, there was lots of buzz around it starting this week. Wednesday night in Montreal I spent over an hour at dinner talking about the fun things to do at Stampede with a group of francophones at a high end resto. Something I don't remember doing for the GP -
. While I am sure a lot of it is related to the 100th anniversary, none the less, there was quite a buzz.
2 - the flight back on Thursday night from Toronto was the most entertaining one in a quite a while. Since the arrival of VOD, most flights have become very quiet, however about a 12-20 hat wearing passengers got on the flight at Pearson and ensured that this flight was a little more alive. Due to weather at both ends we didn't arrive until 2ish, however they were still at it, as were the large number of partiers, er people, picking them up at the airport.
So while some may "hate" Stampede, it certainly does help differentiate Calgary from the herd .... in a good way, IMHO.
PS. It was also quite funny to see all the first time tourists at the airport all moving between the luggage carosels taking pictures of the dinosaurs, military statues, etc. I do love how we use a normally dead space to advertise the area!!
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