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By Scott Roblin

Wait and See

Medicine Hat Exhibition & Stampede waiting on guidance from province

Apr 17, 2020 | 5:19 PM

MEDICINE HAT, AB – The clock is ticking until the 2020 Medicine Hat Exhibition and Stampede is scheduled to get underway.

Less than 100 days remain until Medicine Hat’s largest annual celebration and organizers are continuing their preparations, albeit in a bit of a different format.

“We have people that are working from home and others that are working carefully around the grounds to get ready,” said general manager Jim MacArthur. “We’re of course following all the public health directives that are in place and we’re just doing the best we can.”

The fate of the 2020 Stampede and Exhibition is still up in the air due to the uncertainty caused by COVID-19, however the mid-summer dates of July 22 to 25 have allowed some breathing room.

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“Our Stampede takes place the last week of July so perhaps there’s a slight advantage in that,” said MacArthur. “But, we are going to just have to wait and see.”

The Medicine Hat Exhibition & Stampede have already postponed the Broncs & Honky Tonks Spring Indoor Rodeo to the fall and have pushed June’s WPCA chuckwagon tour stop to a later date.

Earlier this week, Premier Jason Kenney mentioned that he was committed to providing guidance to organizers of large Alberta summer festivals in the near future.

Guidance that MacArthur said will factor into their decision if this year’s event will go ahead.

“We are watching that very closely and clearly would take the guidance given by the province on that,” he said. “In the meantime, we continue to prepare in a very measured and cautious way.”

This comes as the Calgary Stampede also weighs its own options, coming off a 2019 event that saw over 1.2 million visitors pass through the gates.

The Calgary Stampede is scheduled to be held over the first two weeks of July and while locals will be watching to see what decision is made, they’ll be acting on the best interests of the Medicine Hat community.

“It’s such a great operation and it’s so good for the economy of Alberta, it’s an organization that we really look up to,” said MacArthur. “So, we’re certainly interested in what’s happening there, but we’re a little bit later than they are. So, depending on what the government has to say in the days ahead that will be the main determining factor for us.”

All full-time staff at the Medicine Hat Exhibition & Stampede continue to work and plan for July, something that MacArthur said is getting them through this period of uncertainty.

“We’ve have all our staff in place and that’s a bit of an achievement these days,” he said. “That’s the way we’re going to approach it and we’re going to be as ready as we can.”

The Medicine Hat Farmer’s Market is still expected to go ahead this spring as the provincial government has declared farmer’s markets as essential services.

MacArthur confirmed they’re still in the planning stages of what that will look like, as the first market is tentatively planned for May 16.