Tens of thousands of Calgarians jostled 10-deep for their places on downtown streets as the Calgary Stampede parade got off to an exciting start Friday morning with a Canadian Forces Snowbirds fly over.

The grace and power of Canada’s military jet team had the crowd wowed as the screams of the Snowbirds’ jet engines rumbled through a pristine blue sky moments before the parade got rolling.

“Everyone stood, mouths hanging open in awe,” said Dan Ponce, who watched with his son Santiago, 3, as the aerobatics crew fly by. “It was so amazing. We’ve got to see more of them.”
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As the military pilots headed south out of the city tracing the lines of the Rocky Mountains in the distance, parade marshals Sara Renner and Bjornar Hakensmoen began a much more leisurely ride into downtown. Renner, the Olympic cross-country ski medalist from Canmore, and Hakensmoen, the Norwegian ski coach who gave Renner an extra pole during a race, were riding high on their horses, leading more than 400 parade participants down 6th Avenue S.W.E

The Stampede Calgary’s annual celebration of cowboy culture got off to a damp start Thursday evening with its Sneak-A-Peak look inside the midway. Hail and torrential rain kept crowds down, but more than 31,308 people still came out for the first tour of rides and games.