During the 10 days of the Calgary Stampede, more than a million people will be taking in the attractions, checking out the rides, and satiating their hunger and thirst at one of dozens of food and beverage vendors.

For local Calgary companies, it represents an opportunity to have their brand in front of the largest crowds the city has to offer.

But along with that comes the pressure to not only produce hundreds—possibly thousands—of meals and drinks every day, and that can be a challenge.

“In terms of providing new opportunities for exhibitors that is an ongoing conversation, because we want to make sure they’re prepared for our event,” said Ashley Warner, Midway Manager for the Calgary Stampede.

“The 10 days is unlike any other show, so you do really need to prepare.”

She said that for some vendors, that meant prepping their menus since last fall. Others, like Richard Paolini who have decades of Calgary Stampede experience under their belts, started a little later.

Sweet and savoury treat

Paolini Concessions is one of the vendors offering a mix of new and new-to-Calgary offerings this year for the Stampede with a skittle hotdog, traditional Schweinshaxe, also known as German pork hock, and pork tongue on a stick.

“I thought it’d be cool to introduce Canadians and our guests to a German, authentic dish. In terms of the Skittle dog, I always try and do something that’s geared towards the kids,” Paolini said.

He said that for the latter, he originally started with the idea of a gummy dog, but it ended up creating a weird texture with gelatin pockets inside. The Skittle Dog uses freeze-dried Skittles inside the Calgary-made sausage, and then is sprinkled with Skittles on top.

“That Skittle dog, it’s actually quite tasty. It’s got a sweet tinge to it. It’s all naturally smoked. It’s made with organic, organic beef. It’s an all-beef dog, and we make it in-house. I think people are going to be pretty happy with it.”

Paolini said that earlier this year, as soon as the wild game season was complete, his company had been preparing for the Stampede.

“We’ve been pounding stuff out since probably February,” he said.

“We’ve got pallets and pallets of product coming in. Meat just to keep going on this, like pallets of tongues, pallets of haxe. We’ve got to cure them. We’ve got to inject them. We’ve got to smoke them. We’ve got to cool them down, package them, freeze them, and it’s a lot of work, a lot of work. So basically, we’re prepping for Stampede probably for a good five months, just to get everything ready to go.”

For Bow Tie Pizza, 2025 will be their first Calgary Stampede with their relatively new food truck.

“It’s our third year in our truck, and we thought, ‘hey, let’s swing for the fences here.’ It’s a huge event, one of the biggest events in the country, right? So from a visibility standpoint, it’s amazing,” said Isaiah McLellan, general manager of food truck operations for Bow Tie Pizza.

“It’s not even about the money for us at that point.”

Their signature dish this year, besides their offerings of pizza by the slice, is a delectable maple and bacon cheesecake made in-house.

“It’s all fresh, never frozen. We use Canadian maple syrup on it. We infuse maple syrup into the cheesecake itself with real bacon that we cook beforehand, and then serve it on top. It’s very good,” McLellan said.

“At first, I was kind of a little skeptical about it, and I was like, there’s no way this will taste that good. I tasted it, and I was like ‘holy, this is amazing.’ It’s a special only on our truck for Stampede and that’s it.”

McLellan said that to keep up with the more than 100,000 people who will be at the park each day, there will be a real push to do their best.

“Our truck is built for volume, so we do it. We do pizza by the slice. So, luckily, they’re not waiting 10 or 15 minutes for one slice of pizza. But, you know, it’s daunting, but at the end of the day you can only make pizza as fast as you can.”

From twists on traditional to the unusual and unique

Warner said that every year, in addition to finding vendors that can keep up with demand, that they also fall into three categories to be selected.

“International delight, wild and wacky and traditional twist—we want to offer something to all the guests, and we also want to highlight every exhibitor that we have. So it’s not just the truly crazy items that we’re seeing. It’s tasty. It’s delightful. It’s a variety.”

Chanry Thach, a food influencer and long-time food PR professional, said that she would try anything once, but it was the balance between good food and bang for the buck that Stampede visitors should look for this year.

“I like to do a balance of something that’s going to be hearty, that’s going to keep me full, that’s going to keep me powering through. Then also, I want something ridiculous over the top—like, I’m not gonna make this at home,” Thach said.

“The happy truck. They do a giant fried squid every year, and it’s literally the size of my head. I’ll never make that at home. I could never make something like that at home. I can’t even replicate that, so I get that every time from them.”

She said that as far as some of the farther out entries go, they might not be as weird as people think.

“You’ve probably had tongue before if you’ve had Mexican food, you’ve probably had lengua tacos. I think it’s not as weird when you break it down and think about what it is. It’s still a piece of pork. It’s still good. I think it just kind of plays up to the drama, being at Stampede.”

For a full list of this year’s new food entries, see LiveWire Calgary’s coverage of the 50 new bold food items for 2025.