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Alberta Premier Danielle Smith tosses pancakes over her shoulder at her Stampede pancake breakfast in Calgary, on July 10, 2023. The Canadian Press/Jeff McIntosh
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith and Calgary Mayor Jeromy Farkas traded barbs this weekend with Smith criticizing changes to some Stampede-related noise permit conditions and Farkas hitting out at Smith over a “last-minute” beer price hike.
In a post to X on Saturday, Smith charged that “fun police have struck again in Calgary” after the city made adjustments to noise exemption permit times and allowable decibel levels that would restrict noise at the Calgary Stampede and require events to end earlier.
Smith said the move would negatively affect workers and create a public safety risk as crowds would be leaving venues in a shorter timeframe.
In a post on the issue on Sunday, Farkas hit back at Smith, criticizing a provincial hike on beer prices and using the same wording “fun police” she used and also referring to impacted workers.
“Looks like the fun police have struck again in Alberta, this time targeting people trying to enjoy a pint,” he wrote.
“This last-minute hike before Stampede will raise the minimum price of a beer from $3.20 to $5, a 60% increase. The provincial government will negatively affect thousands of workers and create additional problems for bars and restaurants already facing higher costs.”
Calgary Mayor Jeromy Farkas in a file photo. The Canadian Press/Bill Graveland
Regarding changes to permitted noise levels, the City of Calgary has a Community Standards Bylaw that stipulates rules around noise-making, but a person or group can request a noise exemption permit that allows a short-term exemption if their event might be noisy or occur early in the morning or late at night. The permit can normally be used from 10 p.m. to 7 a.m. on weekdays and from 10 p.m. to 9 a.m. on Sundays and holidays.
However, in a June 21 post on X, Farkas shared a memo four days earlier from Calgary’s community standards chief indicating that he has made adjustments to exemption permit times and allowable noise levels for Stampede music festivals to “reduce impacts on residents while supporting safe event operations.”
Stampede concerts must now end at midnight on weeknights, with cool-down music permitted on outdoor speakers until 12:30 a.m. Last year’s permitted end times on Friday and Saturday nights remain unchanged, with music allowed until 1:30 a.m. and cool-down music until 2 a.m.
In addition, allowable noise levels (dBA) and maximum bass levels (dBC) have been reduced from 75 dBA and 85 dBC to 70 dBA and 80 dBC before midnight, and from 65 dBA and 85 dBC to 65 dBA and 80 dBC after midnight, it added.
In a separate post on X on Sunday, Smith’s chief Rob Anderson wrote that noises in the 60–65 dBA range would be as low as the hum of a dishwasher, an electric toothbrush, or light office chatter.
“Friendly suggestion you find a way for the City to be a tad more reasonable than this… A lot of jobs and events will be lost if you can’t,” he wrote.
Farkas replied that Anderson had mistaken the noise level limit and said the actual limit of 70 dBA would have a sound intensity 100 times higher than a 50 dBA level.
“I support Calgary having the best festivals, including the longest show hours on the continent. I will work with industry and community to protect that,” he wrote. “I look forward to your retraction, in line with the same standard of accuracy you constantly demand from media.”
Impact on Festival Operators
Smith said major festivals across North America typically operate without such restrictions. She called the Stampede “one of Calgary’s signature events” that attracts hundreds of thousands of attendees.
She urged Farkas to reconsider the restrictions and work with festival operators to find a balanced solution.
In her X post on Saturday, Smith referenced an opinion piece by Paul Vickers, president of Penny Lane Entertainment, the company behind the Cowboys Dance Hall and related Stampede-area entertainment venues.
In the article, Vickers says the updated conditions would make it “extremely difficult” to host outdoor concerts and that the allowable noise levels would be “far below what audiences would reasonably expect from a live concert experience.” The changes would also mean that some acts would need to be cut from the set list, he said.
Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre also criticized the changes in a post on X on Saturday, saying that late-night music during the Stampede is a draw for tourists that generates nearly a billion dollars annually for the city.
Cowboy hats are sold at the Calgary Stampede on July 12, 2023. Carolina Avendano/The Epoch Times
“City Hall gatekeepers are making a big mistake killing jobs, smothering country music culture, and cutting back performances at the world-famous Cowboys celebration during the Calgary Stampede,” he wrote. “Hopefully, City Hall will let this 30-year-old music event continue as it has in years past and grow.”
While he did not reply to Poilievre, Farkas responded to a comment by Conservative MP Michelle Rempel Garner who expressed concern that changes to regulations “days before” a music event would lead to uncertainty.
Farkas wrote that the rules were announced in February last year and that an exemption to the rules during last year’s event was conditional upon operators managing noise, safety, and impacts on nearby residents, which they failed to do.
“Last year several hundred people brought complaints. People reported property damage, windows shaking, items falling from shelves, music until 2 a.m., disorder, and excessive intoxication spilling into nearby neighbourhoods,” the mayor wrote.
