{"id":791719,"date":"2026-07-10T01:01:31","date_gmt":"2026-07-10T01:01:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/791719\/"},"modified":"2026-07-10T01:01:31","modified_gmt":"2026-07-10T01:01:31","slug":"stampede-music-tent-complaints-up-30-per-cent-so-far-over-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/791719\/","title":{"rendered":"Stampede music tent complaints up 30 per cent so far over 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"

Noise complaints around Calgary\u2019s Stampede music tents continue to scale up, and one councillor said he\u2019s hearing more from communities to the west of Cowboys Park.<\/p>\n

As of 7 a.m. on July 9, the City of Calgary had received 186 noise complaints related to Stampede events and festival activities around the city.<\/p>\n

Of those, 124 were due to the Cowboys Music Festival, 37 due to Badlands Music Festival, six from Whiskey Rose, one for National Saloon, and 18 complaints for other events.<\/p>\n

Numbers from the same time period last year had 91 complaints for Cowboys, 17 for Badlands, nine for Whiskey Rose, two for National Saloon, and 12 for other events across the city. <\/p>\n

Calgary Community Standard completed an internal review of the ticket originally issued to the Badlands Music Festival earlier this week. That ticket has now been rescinded.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are encouraged by the reduction in decibel levels over the past three nights; however, bass levels remain a challenge,\u201d said Ryan Pleckaitis, Chief, Community Standards.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will be monitoring this venue closely with the goal of achieving compliance through working with operators or through enforcement, if necessary.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Still, two-thirds of complaints thus far have been as a result of the Cowboys Music Festival, which has operated at Cowboys Park in the downtown west end for its second year. This comes after Calgary city council debated Stampede permits earlier this summer. Ultimately, city bylaw backed away from its initial new rules that riled music festival operators, and settled on 75 decibels until midnight, and spillover until 1 a.m.<\/p>\n

During Calgary\u2019s June 23 debate on potential changes to Calgary\u2019s noise exemption permits, Chief Pleckaitis told councillors that the Cowboys\u2019 stage was now facing west. At that time, Ward 6 Coun. John Pantazopoulos expressed concern about the noise spillover into Ward 6.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust talk through that; the changes, the decibels, sound carrying. This isn\u2019t a downtown problem anymore. The Glens are impacted pretty materially. Those bubbles are large,\u201d he said in June.<\/p>\n

Thumping to the west<\/p>\n

Ward 8 Coun. Nathan Schmidt told LWC that he\u2019s hearing more complaints from families in Sunalta this year. He believes it\u2019s largely due to that shift in the performance stage away from the buildings to the south and more to the west.<\/p>\n

Schmidt said he lives closer to the Westbrook LRT station, and he can hear the bass from there.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think this is something that we\u2019re going to have to continue to work with all of our partners and bylaw around finding something that works for everybody,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Schmidt said he\u2019s never found the argument that it\u2019s just for 10 days around Stampede to hold much water. He said they\u2019ve been around 100-plus years; they\u2019ve changed and Calgary\u2019s changed.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think if you would take somebody from 1923 at Stampede and put them in the middle of a Flo Rida concert, and I think they\u2019d be pretty surprised by that as well,\u201d he said. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cAs the Stampede evolves, the city evolves, and they need to evolve together.\u201d<\/p>\n

LWC requested neighbourhood specific 311 complaint data from the City of Calgary. They said they were unable to provide it, as some complaints didn\u2019t carry an address.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, Calgary Mayor Jeromy Farkas said they want to continue to be transparent with both the public and the music industry to better understand the constraints. He said a big piece is the technology and things like the stage orientation.<\/p>\n

He said that this was mostly a question of noise when people are trying to rest and relax at their homes.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really just that post-midnight activity that we are concerned about. Not just noise, but also some of the other impacts that are spilling over the local residents, like social disorder, public intoxication, and so on,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going to continue to very closely collaborate with our law enforcement partners, bylaw enforcement folks as well, to make sure that we can execute on the stampede that\u2019s lively but also safe and respectful for the communities that ultimately need to have a good night\u2019s sleep to be able to work the next day.\u201d<\/p>\n

The City of Calgary said the next noise bylaw update would come on July 12.<\/p>\n

Liked it? Take a second to support Darren Krause on Patreon!<\/p>\n

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