While the Calgary Stampede parade is just six months away, the time to get in applications for floats and entries is now.

The Stampede opened applications for the 2024 parade this week, with a pitch for new organizations to join alongside long-standing members for the annual event that draws hundreds of thousands to Calgary’s downtown core.

Jason Balasch, Chair of the Stampede’s Parade Entries Subcommittee, said that January is the true start of a the long process to put on one of the largest single annual events in the city.

“One of our goals is to develop new entries, and that does take some time to get things together. We really start now publicizing now and going through a process over the next few months to get applications in, and working with people who are in the parade,” he said.

“That leaves us the May–June timeframe to get things really together, and get ready for the parade.”

Balasch said that every year the Stampede is looking for entertainment-focused floats and participants that bring excitement to the parade—and that can include anything from western and equestrian entries, cultural groups, marching bands, and everything in between.

Last year, one of the award winning entrants, he said, was from a grassroots group called Hippo Love, which brought their steel turtle that had previously been to Burning Man.

“[They] had had really upbeat techno music and dancing going, and that’s something we haven’t always seen and I really enjoyed that one,” Balasch said.

New entrants alongside those involved for decades

He said that over the years they have had great long-term commitment from groups like the Ismali Muslims, who have have been partnering with community groups and non-profits for the past 36 years to create award-winning floats.

Alnoor Velji, who has been a parade float volunteer for those 36 years, said that when the Ismali Muslim community started in 1986, they really weren’t familiar with the Stampede parade.

“The first year was the one that we kind of wetted our feet, and then the second year it was the year of the Olympics, if you remember. We were so excited about it and we had the the best float, and we won the best award for the for the parade,” Velji said.

“We’re very fortunate that we’ve have a good set of volunteers over the years, past 36 years, and it’s passed on within families and friends in the community who come out and help us.”

He said that their entry, like many of the entries in the parade, represent the diversity of the city and provide a way for newcomers to find their place.

“Calgary is a very diverse community and that allows us to partner with different organizations and groups, to build bridges with them and hopefully, through their associations,” Velji said.

“We can send the message out to the larger community that if there is help to be needed, like the Mental Health Society, or Meals on Wheels, or the Boys and Girls Club, then they can reach out to the community and the community knows that there are associations like that they can reach out to, and it makes the community better and stronger.”

Special memories being made every year

Another long-time group that has participated in the parade, and is in much demand throughout the Stampede, are the Chinook Country Line Dancers.

Chris McCormack, a dancer with the group, said that some of her first memories of Calgary when she emigrated to Canada 50 years ago, was of the Stampede parade

Today, she said, she was proud to have danced in the parade for the past seven years.

“You get on there and the crowds on Ninth Avenue or Sixth Avenue, they just involve you so much. One time, I just skipped down the whole route, I was so excited. We just danced at the corners and I was skipping, and I hadn’t skipped in probably 30 years, that’s how joyful it was,” McCormack said.

“There’s a huge community of women, all ages, sizes, occupations, and we come together and we just have a ball, and I just love it. We do a lot of volunteering around all year long, through the seniors and stuff, but the parade and the Stampede are our best week ever.”

Balasch said that feeling of the parade being something extra special was not uncommon, and regularly drawing 300,000 plus visitors every year—or as he put it, 16 times the average Flames game—was indicative of that interest.

Some of that interest, he said, was also from international groups wanting to return to participate in the parade post-pandemic

“We’ve had a lot more interest from international, overseas and U.S. marching bands, and also entrants—some floats—but more rodeo entrants, horses. People coming from farther away and willing to travel again, it makes for fuller parade and more entrants,” he said.

Applicants have until Feb. 15 to apply for the Stampede parade, and can submit their entry at www.calgarystampede.com/stampede/parade/apply