One Yellow Rabbit’s High Performance Rodeo (HPR) is set to return for its 40th season in January, and with it, an eclectic mix of intriguing performances, complemented by the return of fan favourites.

Festival producer Oliver Armstrong said that while One Yellow Rabbit has never put guardrails on the types of performances they include, there was a desire embrace the spirit of what is out there in the performance world but also pay tribute to past festivals.

Top of that list for both is one night performance of wrestling and burlesque with Miss Rita’s Luncha VaVOOM at Winsport, and then a return of the incredible fan favourite Dream Machine.

“[Miss Rita’s Luncha VaVOOM] in that one, I will say is a risk. We don’t even know exactly what to expect, except that whenever they come— they’ve been in Calgary once before—people still talk about it,” said Armstrong.

“This was the kind of one where, we let it slip to a few of our insiders in the last couple of months as we were having these conversations and and some of our closest confidants on the pre-sale day said, what’s the code? I’m buying, 28 tickets. Like, ‘sign me up.’ So that’s kind of where the mix and the variety of offerings that we’re known for is coming into play in a 40th anniversary celebration.”

What continues in grand HPR tradition, is that many of the productions running from Jan. 13 through 31, 2026, will set the tone for theatre seasons to come.

Be that from just genre-pushing productions that get audiences excited for more of the same, to getting to see in-production works that will eventually have their full premieres on a later date.

“We do think that we’re flexible and open enough to performance experiences that taking the guardrails off should have an influence, even though that’s not necessarily our intention to say, make luchadores cool again,” said Armstrong.

“If it does then that’s a huge win for us, because the way that we, the way that we try to welcome our audience, is the way that we think it can be done. I’m always gratified when artists reach out to me and say ‘I grew up in Calgary, I grew up seeing the rodeo, and it’s always been a dream of mine to get my show on the rodeo.’”

What also remains true, outside of cliches, is that the 2026 edition of the High Performance Rodeo has something to offer audiences of any interest over their 30 plus performances over the three weeks.

That includes a variety of new venues for the festival, although the downtown core still remains the heart of the High Performance Rodeo.

“We want our audiences to be as comfortable in the WinSport Arena as they would be in the Big Secret Theater, even though you couldn’t have two more different venues. We spend a lot of time thinking about how to do that, and how to make the experience with less barriers and less friction for our audience. So, if there’s any one theme, it’s come as you are and feel a joyful experience and know that we’re going to take care of you,” said Armstrong.

Top picks for 2026 High Performance Rodeo run the gamut of entertainment

Among the top picks for the upcoming High Performance Rodeo include the return of the Goblins from Spontaneous Theatre’s Rebecca Northan, Bruce Horak with Goblin:Gala, The End of the World Cabaret with genre bending jazz, swing, and pop from former Calgarian turned New Yorker ONALEA, a touching true story of loss and absurdity from master monologist Daniel MacIvor in Your Show Here, and a what if about Juliet if things had turned out differently at the end of Romeo and Juliet in Juliet: A Revenge Comedy.

Armstrong said that another must-see production, which also happened to be part of the free offerings from the High Performance Rodeo, was the work-in-progress My Name is Karen about the meme concept of being a Karen from Karen Hines.

“She’s almost created her own genre of physical theatre… it’s one show only, where she is testing a new work on audiences. It’s a work in progress. I think that speaks to the relationship that we maintain with world class artists such as Karen Hines,” said Armstrong.

Audiences will once again get a chance to meet many of the artists post-shows at the festival’s Laycraft Lounge at the Werklund Centre.

“You meet artists that you just saw on stage every night, they come and they have a glass of wine, and there are these round tables that occur until well into the evening every night,” said Armstrong.

“I would highly encourage people to take advantage of everything they can on our three full weeks. We tried to cluster things around Thursday to Saturday as much as possible, to make it easier for people.”

Calgarians are once again being encouraged to get their tickets early, especially for the one-night-only performances as those are likely to sell out well before January, said Armstrong.

“When it’s a one night only—so Karen’s show, The Goblin:Gala, Luncha VaVOOM—blink and you miss it is. It sounds like a bit of a trope, but it’s absolutely true,” he said.

Tickets for the 2026 High Performance Rodeo are on sale at www.oyr.org/hprodeo.