Thanks to Kids Up Front, I was lucky enough to receive tickets to the Stampede this Tuesday. So, after a stressful day of morning summer school, I treated myself to a day of stampeding with my sister. This was actually my first time attending, and I finally saw what all the excitement about it was for. I had an amazing time and it was such a fun break from the stressful morning I had. After screaming on rides and tasting some really crazy food items (which I’ll blog about later), I attended the Evening Show.
Seeing as it was my first time ever going to stampede, it took a while for me to find where the evening show was happening but when I did, I was glad I did. I met the Chuckwagon Race started as I got there. It was so exciting! After the nine races, there was a break, after which we were treated to a performance by William Shatner. He sang ‘O Canada‘ with a funny twist to it. According to Shatner, saying ‘O Canada’ sounds sad, it should be ‘Yeah Canada’! This can only tell how much more funnier it got as he went on. Referencing our free health care, cold weather and with replacements of ‘our home and native land’ with ‘our home on native land’ and how about ‘fabulous and free’ rather than ‘glorious and free’.
After the comedic experience, there was a fun, lively dance performance by the Young Canadians. They were really entertaining to watch and had so much energy in their performance, that the audience got so energized and couldn’t stop cheering all through. The dance routine ended with a kick line and then they gave us what you could call a mini history class. There was a run through of Canadian music for the past 100 years. Different members of the Young Canadians would jump in and sing a song in representation of the artists from about 100 years ago, till now. From as old as Neil Young to as familiar as Celine Dion and Justin Bieber. I learnt more about Canadian music history in one night than I had in two years.
There was a basketball display following the Young Canadians by four basketball players. They took turns going towards the net, jumping on a trampoline and then slam dunking. They didn’t only jump on the trampoline before dunking, they also used some stunts: somersaults, backflips. Personally, I’m not your biggest basketball fan, but seeing this display, I felt like getting on a court and dragging in my own trampoline. You would think that doing stunts and playing basketball was enough? But they had some dancing in store for us too. This wasn’t just a dance like the others we had seen so far, they did certain popular dances right now. All four of them did ‘the whip and the naenae’ and then before ending their display, one of them twerked on stage and no one could stop laughing.
The last performance I saw, I was so glad to see it before leaving for the night. A guy went up into the sky in a round transparent ball and then fireworks were constantly shooting out of the ball. It was a fantastic last memory to have. The evening show was truly an amazing experience and is one of those experiences about Stampede that shouldn’t be missed. I encourage you all to head out to see it within the few days left of stampede, you won’t be disappointed at all.
Thank you again to Kids Up Front for providing this amazing opportunity!
