From drag queens to drunk Hamlet: Calgary’s wildest festival returns!

While many cities leave their festivals for the busy months of summer, Calgary does the opposite and we celebrate our wildest and craziest theatre festival right in the middle of winter. So if you’re looking for a reason to shake off those winter doldrums, it doesn’t get more wild and crazy than One Yellow Rabbit’s nearly month long festival: High Performance Rodeo.

Each January the HPRodeo features our homegrown talent and brings superstar, international shows to Calgary to shake us up a bit. If you’re like me, and find yourself feeling a bit overwhelmed by the amount of shows to choose from, you’re in luck, I’ve gone ahead and done the work for you.

There is an easy way to wade through the 19 days…  This year the Rodeo has done something super smart – they’re co-producing or co-presenting with a whole bunch of a local orgs like DJD and AB Ballet. Plus bringing in some headline talent everyone knows and loves like Canada’s superstar spoken word poet Shane Koyczan (Jan 22) and Scott Thompson (doing Buddy Cole!) from Kids in the Hall (Jan 23-26).

If you’re a Calgarian arts lover, looking for a safe bet at the Rodeo – here is your handy guide:

For the pride festival drag-show queen: https://www.hprodeo.ca/2019/pearle-harbour

For the folk fest fan: 
https://www.hprodeo.ca/2019/this-little-piggie

For the Loose Moose fans who like to see Calgary’s finest playing it fast and loose:https://www.hprodeo.ca/2019/10-min-play-fest

For the Shakespeare in the park goers who just go to drink wine on Prince’s Island:https://www.hprodeo.ca/2019/hammered-hamlet-drunk-shakespeare

For the cirque (maybe a…ahem…cannabis-fuelled cirque?): https://www.hprodeo.ca/2019/cow-love

Finally: if you like free stuff…
https://www.hprodeo.ca/2019/proartsnoon-series mean weekly concerts over the lunch hour (if you’ve never heard Allison Lynch sing you’re missing an actual angel here on earth and living in Calgary) or you can check out the world premiere of a movie they’re filming in Calgary over a few days at Eau Claire for FREE at the new library here: https://www.hprodeo.ca/2019/democratic-set. You can even visit the set from the 9th to 11th just to see them in action