{"id":685529,"date":"2026-05-22T03:15:43","date_gmt":"2026-05-22T03:15:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/685529\/"},"modified":"2026-05-22T03:15:43","modified_gmt":"2026-05-22T03:15:43","slug":"its-a-me-jeromy-calgary-mayor-welcomes-all-to-calgary-expo-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/685529\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cIt\u2019s-a Me, Jeromy!\u201d: Calgary Mayor welcomes all to Calgary Expo 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Hannah Caparino,<\/a> May 21 2026\u2014<\/p>\n

City of Calgary Mayor, Jeromy Farkas led the newly named \u201cParty of Wonders\u201d to kick off Calgary Expo 2026. Due to weather conditions, the traditional \u201cParade of Wonders\u201d was cancelled and was changed to the \u201cParty of Wonders\u201d and\u00a0 was held at the base of the BMO Event Centre where Expo fans would gather to see their favourite stars. Cosplayed as the famous plumber, Mario from the \u201cSuper Mario Brothers Franchise\u201d, Farkas was seen walking around the alleyways of the BMO after the party was brought inside. In a brief interview with the Gauntlet, Farkas spoke about the community, Calgary\u2019s growth and presenting White Hats to many Expo guests.<\/p>\n

At the \u201cParty of Wonders\u201d, many celebrities were sporting White Hats that were gifted by Farkas. Celebrities gifted the hats included: Star Wars star Anthony Daniels, The Lord of the Rings\u2019 John Rhys-Davies and Supernatural stars Samantha Smith and DJ Qualls. Farkas spoke on what these White Hats mean and how they represent the city.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, for me, it\u2019s more than anything else about the kind of city we are. We\u2019re welcoming where everybody can belong. We can celebrate our differences. We can discover new things about ourselves, other people, [and] to have others come from around the world to be part of what we\u2019re building here in Calgary is amazing.\u201d said Farkas, \u201cIt\u2019s about [something] bigger than just the symbol of the White Hat for hospitality, but it\u2019s still an important statement about who we are as a city.\u201d<\/p>\n

Expo as an event brings multiple people together over a collective love of anything and everything pop culture. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis [Expo] is just for a weekend, but really this is what Calgary is every single day of the year. It\u2019s a place where anybody and everybody can work hard to come here, to be able to succeed. It\u2019s a place where everyone belongs.\u201d stated Farkas.<\/p>\n

After tackling municipal challenges like the recent Bearspaw South Feeder Main Break in December 2025<\/a>, Farkas has been rallying the community to come together and save water. As Calgary\u2019s \u201cMario\u201d, while his cosplay is a bit on the nose with the plumbing and water pipe reference, his cosplay speaks to wider individual and collective efforts to better our city\u2019s infrastructure. Now a newly inducted cosplayer, he expressed his excitement for other folks\u2019 cosplay.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m looking forward to the cosplay,\u201d said Farkas, \u201cIt\u2019s [Calgary Expo] an amazing place to be because you really see people\u2019s creativity and their different takes on these iconic characters come to life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Information on future tickets and Expo events will be on the website<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Hannah Caparino, May 21 2026\u2014 City of Calgary Mayor, Jeromy Farkas led the newly named \u201cParty of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":685530,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194293],"tags":[49,2798,251226,233113,48,251227,109504,45518],"class_list":["post-685529","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-calgary","tag-ca","tag-calgary","tag-calgary-comic-expo","tag-calgary-expo","tag-canada","tag-expo-2026","tag-jeromy-farkas","tag-student-life"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/685529","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=685529"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/685529\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/685530"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=685529"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=685529"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=685529"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}