r/AlbertaNewspapers

Bell: Farkas on fire, Danielle Smith pushes back, the Stampede tent brawl

Stampede tent noise? It’s the political noise getting louder

By Rick Bell Published June 22, 2026

Crackle! Sizzle! Roar!

Calgary Mayor Jeromy Farkas is on fire.

“A permit is not a free pass to keep people awake for 11 nights because someone powerful demands it.

“Rick, you spoke up for years. You were told to call 311. You were told to wait while people with money, access and powerful friends expected city hall to look the other way.

“If you want to do business in Calgary respect Calgarians and that includes the people who live next door.

“This isn’t about the Stampede. We are laying down the law for the bad operators who refuse to treat their neighbours with respect.

“Too many powerful people only talk about freedom when it protects their friends. They have nothing to say about a nurse, a parent, a worker wanting to sleep before a shift.

“This is the test of whether we listen to big money or listen to the people.”

Farkas is on fire.

We are not talking about tents at the Calgary Stampede.

We are not talking about tents anywhere near the Calgary Stampede.

We are not talking about the Stampede suffering or how Calgary won’t be a world-class city or how tourists will stop coming here.

We are not talking about Calgary city hall becoming the fun police and shutting down good times in the city.

It’s about the Cowboys tent and the Badlands tent and how they operate as if they don’t give a damn about the many Calgarians who live close to them.

For years, first it was Badlands. I wrote a lot about them. Others raised their voices. Nothing.

Then came the double whammy when former mayor Jyoti Gondek let Cowboys take over at the current location.

Through it all, the locals have begged city hall to do the right thing and put reasonable limits on the noise booming at the window-shaking homes of sleep-deprived Calgarians many blocks away for 11 straight nights.

The noise, the social disorder. Eleven nights.

Mayor Farkas and Calgary city hall listened. Believe it or not, they did.

On weeknights the tent concerts end at midnight. There is no change to concert endings on Fridays and Saturdays. That’s 1:30 a.m.

Allowable noise levels would go down from 75 decibels to 70 decibels.

And with these modest tweaks, all hell broke loose.

Paul Vickers plays full-court press Chicken Little and tells us the sky will fall and the economy will be threatened if he doesn’t get his way.

Then Jenni Byrne, long-time federal Conservative bigshot and now an Ontario-based public relations somebody, posts Vickers’ piece on X, once known as Twitter.

Then Rona Ambrose, a former federal Conservative somebody, posts Byrne and Vickers on X.

Then Michelle Rempel Garner, Conservative MP, says Ambrose is right and that is reposted by Byrne along with Vickers.

Rempel Garner also has her opinion piece in the press which is shared by the group.

Then Premier Danielle Smith joins the chorus and talks about the fun police striking again in Calgary and asks people to read Vickers.

Even federal Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre jumps on the train. Byrne was boss of Poilievre’s campaign last year.

Poilievre says city hall is smothering country music culture. I think Pierre should check out the lineups at the two tents.

Their message. Vickers of Cowboys is right. He is the victim. The residents? Who?

I call the mayor. His interview is gold.

Farkas says the people mentioned above are “manufacturing B.S.”

“We really have to cut away the B.S,” says Farkas, adding no one’s business model should “depend on treating nearby residents as garbage and collateral damage.”

He says the city’s rules for the tents are now about what they were in 2018 and the Stampede was rockin’ back then and tents were not “plopped in the middle of a residential neighbourhood.”

Farkas adds these tents had an exemption from the rules if they managed noise and public safety but they did not meet the standard.

He says the tents were told back in February there would be changes in the rules and Cowboys was told again in May.

The mayor talks about world-class music fests like Coachella and Lollapalooza in Chicago and says what Calgary is doing is actually permissive.

He also says he is not going to take orders from lobbyists or out-of-touch federal and provincial politicians.

Farkas still has a little more heat.

He says Smith is trying to change the channel from other issues.

“If they can paint this as big bad city hall shutting down poor little Stampede they think they can win. It assumes Calgarians are idiots but we’re not idiots.”

Meanwhile, Smith is sending sheriffs to patrol the tents and sends Calgary city council a letter late Monday where it sure sounds like the premier wants to really step into this fight.