Cowboys cancels Stampede music festival

CALGARY – One of the tents that has become a staple of the Calgary Stampede will not be raised this year.

Cowboys announced Thursday that it would be cancelling its annual music festival that takes place during Stampede after many lengthy discussions and careful consideration of all possible scenarios.

“This announcement breaks our hearts and we are saddened about this as you are. We truly never imagined that we would be missing all of our #TeamCowboys fans for the second straight year,” the bar wrote on Instagram.

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“We have taken into account all of the information surrounding federal, provincial, City of Calgary, and AHS health restrictions, vaccination rates on first and second doses, travel restrictions, and more. Based on this information we have concluded that creating and bringing you the true ‘Cowboys experience’ is not possible.”

The casino and dancehall goes on to say that canceling the festival is in the best interest of the community, staff, and partners.

“We want you to know that it is important to us to stay the course stay strong stay supportive and be a part of the solution in getting us past the finish line for this unprecedented time in all of our lives.”

Cowboys says the priority right now needs to be on getting day-to-day life back to normal, not on the dancehall or its events.