The first week of January is probably one of the healthiest of the year.
It’s the week for getting rolling on your resolutions, setting some goals, and looking ahead to the next 12 months of amazing.
So between sips of your leafy green beverage, vegan salad, and kale sandwich, grab that wall calendar you got for Christmas and mark these dates down to make sure this year is the best you’ve ever had in Calgary.
1. High Performance Rodeo
Kicking off the year with a bang, this is actually more like a month full of events. Western Canada’s largest festival of arts, they’re bringing you daily doses of comedy, art, theatre, music, and dance between January 7th and February 1st. These award-winning performances are a real gift for anyone whose resolutions have anything to do with entertainment…and don’t require booze.
2. Schmancy
Staying stimulated isn’t just about getting artsy; it’s about your brain, too. The Glenbow Museum’s keystone fundraising event is also one of the year’s “power parties” according to Maclean’s magazine. Getting dressed up for a good cause has never been this fun, and ticket prices are substantially reduced for the under-30 crowd. It’s been sold out the last three years running, so we suggest planning ahead for this one.
3. The Tim Horton’s Brier
We know, we know: curling hasn’t historically been the trendiest of sports, but that doesn’t mean this event won’t – wait for it – rock. It’s about as Canadian as it gets to bundle up, rep your home province, and yell “hurry hard,” and about as fun as it gets to hang out in the Patch afterwards. The extended bonspiel will crown a national champion and runs from February 28th to March 7th.
4. Big Taste
We’re pretty sure that by March you’ll be ready to break your resolution to eat super healthy, so why not break it right with this event? Three and five course feasts served by the city’s best restaurants will make it worth every calorie, so do what you need to do now to rev your metabolismmm.
Need some motivation to work off the bacon-wrapped everything? You’ll have almost two months to train for a 5K, 10K, half, or full marathon at The Calgary Marathon on the last weekend of May. It’s an official Boston Marathon qualifying race, too, if that’s another bucket list/resolution item.
5. Sled Island
The arrival of summer means a few things, the best of which is that live, local music is so much easier to come by. So ready your bikes and plaid shirts and get your passes for some of the best you’ll find anywhere in Canada.
6. Stampede
Sorry for being Captain Obvious, but this is something everyone needs to know about. Whether it means making plans to escape the city while it’s on, or making sure you have tickets and passes for the most coveted events, these are dates to be aware of. July 4th to 13th will be the wildest week of 2015, and we don’t really need to tell you why. What we will tell you, however, is that the Saddledome headliners, Miranda Lambert and Blake Shelton will surprise even the biggest country music skeptics with their live shows on July 9th and 10th respectively, so don’t turn down the tickets your boss offers you.
7. Folk Fest
If you really don’t believe us about pop-country, then you’ll probably be first in line for tickets to Folk Fest on July 23rd to 26th . Recent years have seen acts like Rufus Wainwright, Hayden, Bahamas, and Iron & Wine; so when the full line-up is released in the spring, you know it’s just going to get even better. And as much as it’s about the music, it’s also about great food, great vibes, and some hard chilling in Prince’s Island Park.
8. Tough Mudder
We all know we’re more likely to keep our resolutions when we have a date or a goal in mind, so here’s another one for the fitness freaks. On September 5th and 6th, Dinosaur Valley will transform into a haven for healthy hotties, so if you think you have what it takes, we think it’ll be a pretty solid place to check off that other resolution where you find yourself a like-minded (or bodied) partner to ring in 2016 with.
9. Beakerhead
If you missed it this year, you probably heard all about the robots, giant nets, and dinner on a Ferris wheel. We trust they’ll have something similarly mind-blowing in store for us from September 16th to 20th.
10. Calgary International Film Festival
A growing film scene in Calgary means that events for movie-buffs will continue all year long and culminate between September 23rd and October 4th when the festival goes full force. Last year saw record-breaking attendance as Calgarians walked the red carpet and caught the cinematic buzz. This year will build on that success and, in the meantime, you can get revved up by checking out Doc Soup.
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