Diversity + Talent = 2018 Calgary Stampede Music Line-up

The best thing about the Calgary Stampede music stages has to be the diversity as much as the talent of the line-up.  It’s NOT just country music.  The organizers have gone through great lengths to ensure diversity of genres. The headliners from July 9th proved that.

Phantogram on the Coca-Cola stage not only had what had to have been the biggest crowd so far, but the best light show.  It had the kind of visual effects where you wanted to be toward the back to appreciate the full scope … it wasn’t just on stage but carried over onto the monitors for the crowd.  Usually the monitors show close ups of the performers but for Phantogram they projected the same effects that were displayed behind them on stage.  If felt like a large arena show but in a festival-like crowd on the grass outside.

 

Sloan at the Big Four Roadhouse

The largest, newest, and only permanent venue on the Stampede Grounds.  A very large and high stage with big screen monitor in behind for the video close-ups during performances and special effects.

Fans crowded the front for Sloan – still releasing albums over 25 years after they first began – still independently on their own label – and ensuring each of the 4 members has an equal say on everything.

I don’t know if there was confusion on how to get in (different entrance than for Blue Rodeo last night) or if people were delayed in trying to get from the Coca-Cola stage where things were running off schedule due to a last minute change in line ups, but there weren’t many people as the show started.  Half way through the set, the crowd had more than tripled in size!

 

LOCASH at Nashville North is the only stage that is consistently country in its main theme, but that doesn’t stop the performers that are on stage to through in a little rock, or pop, to get the crowd going … especially when a stage full of men start singing Shania Twain’s “Man I feel like a woman”.  They even poured an entire beer into a fan’s already autographed boot – per his request – and chugged it down while on stage!

 

 

Diversity and talent is definitely the norm to this year’s Stampede … someone in line for Nashville North explained “This ain’t yo mamma’s rodeo … we’s rollen with the times, eh!” … that sentence was about as eclectic as the concert lineups and I think perfectly sums it up.