When I opened Cowboys Dance Hall in 1996, Calgary was a very different city. Over the past 30 years, Cowboys has grown alongside Calgary — from a dance hall to a Stampede tent to Cowboys Music Festival and Cowboys Park. We are proud to have invested in our city, created thousands of jobs, and welcomed millions of guests.
Two years ago, following good faith discussions with the City, we agreed to relocate to Cowboys Park to make way for Scotia Place. We entered into a 10-year sponsorship agreement with the understanding that the site would support our long-term operations and provide growth opportunities and allow us to continue delivering the experiences Calgarians and visitors expect and have grown to love.
In fact, the City encouraged this location to help bring vibrancy to Calgary’s west end, attract visitors to the area, and support investment in a previously under-utilized public space. We have committed significant private dollars into programming, improving and activating a park that benefits the broader community year-round.
That is why it was so surprising to learn that other Stampede tent operators and I would be subject to new noise restrictions that make it extremely difficult to operate outdoor concerts.
The new limits effectively require outdoor music festivals (outside Stampede Park) to operate at sound levels far below what audiences would reasonably expect from a live concert experience. For context, the permitted noise levels are comparable to those found in a busy office. Also, operators now face earlier shutdown despite having already committed to headliner set times; that means some local artist sets will need to be cut. This is after operators have invested millions of dollars in artists, production, staffing, and infrastructure, sending a terrible message to the global entertainment industry.
This year’s Cowboys Music Festival lineup includes international artists such as Ella Langley, Sean Paul, John Summit, Yungblud and RuPaul. These performances attract visitors from around the world, generating significant economic activity.
To comply with these restrictions, Cowboys alone may be forced to eliminate more than 200 seasonal positions. Across all Stampede operators, the number would be significantly higher. Many of these jobs are filled by students and young Calgarians who rely on summer employment opportunities.
Hotels, restaurants, transportation providers, retailers and countless local businesses also benefit from the hundreds of thousands of visitors to our city. These restrictions threaten economic activity at a time when Calgary is trying to attract tourism and investment.
There are also important public safety implications. If multiple venues are forced to end programming at the same time, without staggered egress, tens of thousands of attendees could be pushed onto surrounding streets simultaneously, creating unnecessary risk and disorder.
