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Keith Gerein: Does KDays have a future once Edmonton's wrecking ball comes for the old Northlands racetrack and coliseum?

Outdoor exhibitions that are long, loud and late tend not to mix well with residential communities. One has to assume this is part of the reason why the city did not envision KDays staying long term in an area where they plan to house 6,500 new residents

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Following a recent visit to the Calgary Stampede — my first in several years — I came away tempted to write a column about how much it sucked.

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The claustrophobia-inducing crowds. The noise. The drunks. The outrageous prices for everything. The tiresome, taxpayer-funded political glad-handing. The ubiquitous cowboy cosplay from urban elites who couldn’t tell you the difference between a stallion and a gelding.

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In the end, I thought better of it, not only because such a column would make me sound old, or that it would unnecessarily tick off all of southern Alberta, but mostly because I realized a lot of what I was feeling was jealousy — especially after a subsequent visit to Edmonton’s KDays.

The truth is, it is amazing that Calgary has such a spectacle embraced by the whole city, in which nearly 1.5 million annual visitors are willing to put up with all those annoyances — $15 for a hot dog without sufficient elbow room to eat it, for example — and come back for more.

The Stampede is feat of audacity. It is a must to see, and a place to be seen, to the point that that almost every political leader in the country feels compelled to show up in a cowboy hat.

And if that isn’t envy-inducing enough for Edmontonians, I shudder to mention the major redevelopment plans Calgary has on the table, including a proper concert venue and new agriculture building, not to mention the already half-completed arena project to which Danielle Smith’s government contributed $330 million of our taxpayer dollars.

As for our counterpart in the capital, KDays is still a good time for what it is — at least when it isn’t battered by vicious thunderstorms — but Edmonton’s summer exhibition is an increasingly hard comparison with the Stampede.

Council eyes place for K-Days in Exhibition Lands redevelopment

KDays 2026 a success despite some disruptive weather events

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The fair has no particular theme anymore and no longer has much presence outside of the fairgrounds, especially since the demise of the parade........

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