In 1948, a 14-car passenger train filled with 250 Stampeders fans, 12 horses, two chuckwagons, a dance hall, live bands and 6,000 bottles of beer left from Calgary and headed to Toronto.
These Calgarians were travelling to watch their team compete in the Grey Cup for the very first time. When they landed in Toronto, they transformed the Grey Cup from a one-day sporting event into the week-long, Canada-wide party it is today.
This year, Calgarians get to honour the tradition they started by hosting the 113th Grey Cup and Grey Cup Festival. But before 1948, the city had no reason to celebrate. Back then, various Calgary teams had played in the western final, the game that decides who plays the Grey Cup, 18 times. They’d lost every game.
“People got fed up with coming so close and not making it,” says Stampeders historian Daryl Slade. So when the Stampeders finally won the western final in 1948, the city was thrilled.
In those days, it was unusual for anyone to travel in order to watch the game. But for these long-starved fans, the next play was obvious: their team was going to Toronto, and so were they.
In his book 1948 Grey Cup … The Stampeder Special, Slade quotes a Calgary Herald clipping from the day the train left: “If enthusiasm among the rooters could win football championships, the Calgary Stampeders would already be possessors of the Grey Cup.”
That enthusiasm stayed alive throughout their journey. Slade writes that at each stop the train made, supporters would show up to the station to wave and cheer on the Stampeder Special, where Calgarians would stage impromptu Western shows for their onlookers.
After three days of travel, they arrived in Toronto around 8:30 a.m., “setting off a party like Toronto had never seen before,” wrote Slade.
For the next 27 hours until the game, excited Stampeders fans set up shop outside City Hall and the Royal York Hotel, cooking pancake breakfasts, swing-dancing in their Western attire, singing and playing music in the streets, and partying throughout the night and into the next day.
The morning of the game, they saddled up their horses and chuckwagons, creating the first Grey Cup parade. A few hours later came an even better first: the Stampeders won the Grey Cup.
Exuberant fans rushed the field, celebrating and tearing down the goalposts on both ends. The posts were dragged back to the Royal York Hotel, where celebrations continued in full swing until it was time for the Stampeder Special to take everyone — including the goal posts — back home.
“Before that, it was treated as a single sporting event. There weren’t parades, there weren’t multi-day celebrations or pre-game street parties,” says the Honourable Lois E. Mitchell, Alberta’s 18th Lieutenant Governor and a Calgary businesswoman, volunteer and longtime supporter of sports in the city. “That 1948 legacy is a great example of how Calgarians love to share.”
And this year, the shared festivities happen right at home.
“We’re ready to host a damn good party.”
— KAREN DOMMETT, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF THE 2026 GREY CUP
From November 11 to 15, Calgarians and out-of-town Grey Cup Festival attendees can expect a celebration with both modern and 1948-inspired flair. The BMO Center and The Big Four Roadhouse will be transformed into a free, massive multi-day indoor and outdoor street party, with many local artists and interactive exhibits throughout.
Inside the BMO Centre, each CFL team will host a party room, and there’s a free “family fun zone” as well. The classic pancake breakfast will be making an appearance, with free pancake and bacon service held on the Thursday, Friday and Saturday mornings of the festival. For those who enjoy a good show, there will be live concerts at The Big Four Roadhouse every night, and on Saturday, two full rodeos will take place at the Nutrien Event Centre.
The festival was designed with inclusivity in mind. “The fundamental rule of prairie hospitality is nobody gets left out,” says Mitchell.
To better accommodate all attendees, there will be sensory zones incorporated into the whole site, as well as stroller parking zones for young families in the fun zone, and trailers set aside for nursing.
“Football, family and fun. The three F’s. That’s what this is all about,” says Mitchell.
Karen Dommett, Executive Director of the 2026 Grey Cup, says the enthusiasm that created the first Grey Cup Festival is still alive.
“We filled our volunteer program nearly instantly, and I think that shows the Calgary spirit. We’re ready to welcome the country, have a good time and make sure everyone feels welcome,” says Dommett. “We’re ready to host a damn good party.”
