Throughout the 10 days of Stampede, an average of 120,000 guests visit Stampede Park, making it Alberta’s third largest city. Keeping the Park safe, clean and green is no small feat.

An enormous team works behind the scenes to run our virtual city. Here’s a glimpse into some of the goings-on.

Safety is our top priority. The Stampede works closely with the Calgary Fire Department, Emergency Medical Services and the Calgary Police Service. The police even have a detachment on site to ensure that key areas are patrolled. This year, more officers will patrol the Park then ever before. At the nerve centre, Stampede Dispatch monitors 80 cameras around the clock. At midnight, all main entrances will be closed off with expandable security gates to indicate the Park is closing. At 1 a.m. guests will see new security lights, giving everyone a clear signal that Stampede Park is closed for the evening.

The Stampede also takes its environmental responsibility seriously and has recently been granted ISO: 2004 certification. Over the course of the 10 days, a mind-boggling amount of garbage is processed with as much as possible sorted out for recycling. Nightly, an army of volunteers from the Calgary Boys and Girls Club are in force to tackle the job.

A new and unique initiative for this year involves the recycling of plush toys that guests have won on the midway and don’t want to keep - it's probably more than one would think. If each teddy bear won at the Stampede last year took a seat at the Saddledome, we could sell out 25 Flames games!

While many more initiatives are in place to keep things humming, it’s easy to see why the guest experience on Stampede Park is more than just making sure enough mini-doughnuts are available!