Calgary mayor Jeremy Farkas put out a video during Stampede and dropped some language that got attention. The swearing was the hook. The issue underneath it is real and a lot more specific than noise complaints. Ryan O'Donnell lives three minutes from the Cowboys tent and has something to say about what ten straight days of that actually looks like from the inside.

Downtown Calgary during Stampede isn't just loud. Last year, windows broke. Things fell off shelves. And every morning after, the sidewalks outside people's homes looked like the aftermath of something nobody living there chose to attend. Ryan's point isn't that Stampede shouldn't exist. It's that downtown is a neighbourhood. There are families, strollers, schools around the corner, and people who should be able to stay in their own homes for ten days without leaving.

The question of whether politicians swearing makes them more real or less professional turns out to be more interesting than it sounds.

Topics: Calgary Stampede noise, downtown Calgary neighbourhood, mayor Jeremy Farkas, outdoor concerts city living, festival disruption

Originally aired on 2026-06-23