In recent years, attendance at these gatherings many of them free has soared, turning the breakfasts

CALGARY, Alberta At 6:30 a.m. last Sunday, thousands of people lined up in the shadow of the Calgary Stampede rodeo grounds, where this week competitors are facing off for a piece of one of professional rodeo s richest purses.
Organizers and corporate sponsors of the Stampede, which runs through Sunday, are expecting 1.2 million visitors to this city of 1.1 million. And a central part of the event is a traditional early-morning cheap hotel las vegas pancake breakfast, served up each day inside elaborate hospitality tents, hotels, shopping-mall parking lots and parks across the city.
In recent years, attendance at these gatherings many of them free has soared, turning the breakfasts into logistical cheap hotel las vegas challenges for hosts and guests alike. cheap hotel las vegas Cooks at a breakfast hosted by oil giant Suncor Energy cheap hotel las vegas Inc.,
Meanwhile, in the rush to lure even more visitors, many breakfasts have turned into rowdy, early-morning cheap hotel las vegas affairs, fueled with alcohol and other concoctions. At the Canadian Progress Club s Bullshooters breakfast earlier this week, red bikini- and leather-vest-clad women walked through the crowd, pouring cheap hotel las vegas shots into mouths of guests astride saddles.
It s a big-time rodeo, drawing in international cheap hotel las vegas celebrities in events from mainstream bull riding to chuck-wagon racing. Big-name country entertainers, including Garth Brooks and Brad Paisley, performed this year.
But it s also a 10-day-long street party, kicking off early each morning with pancakes across this sprawling oil-boom town of glass skyscrapers. The tradition harks back to the time hot cakes were cooked over a fire during cattle drives through Alberta cheap hotel las vegas s prairies.
Today, Calgary s oil giants, environmental groups, churches, charities, corporations big and small, and of course, the city s politicians, cheap hotel las vegas all compete to outdo each other in elaborate pancake cheap hotel las vegas breakfasts.
cheap hotel las vegas Across town, at an invite-only breakfast attended by Calgary s mayor and the premier of Alberta, organizers offered up fresh milk from a prized, rose-festooned dairy cow who attended the event, in a concoction that included gin, Champagne and Pepto Bismol, among other ingredients. Guests who sampled the drink took home a certificate.
A few blocks away, at the Westin Hotel, was the Bullshooters breakfast a fundraiser sponsored by big energy firms and banks. The club added a second day for its popular meal complete with the bikini-clad shot servers. It handled more than 1,000 people cheap hotel las vegas in two days, but still had to turn away 600 would-be breakfasters. Tickets cost $145.
At the first breakfast Monday morning, pitchers of beer and vodka-spiked cheap hotel las vegas orange juice sat on tables. Men dressed in suits, cowboy hats and boots waited in line to get in, as the cheerleading squad for the local Canadian Football cheap hotel las vegas League team mingled with the crowd.
At the Suncor Family Day breakfast, under what locals called a clear Alberta Blue sky, thousands of hungry Stampeders were already in line by 6:30 a.m. Suncor handed out branded cowbells. The Canadian military was on hand to help usher the crowds through cheap hotel las vegas the long lines and flip pancakes.
At what earlier would have been breakfasts with 300 to 400 people, cheap hotel las vegas now 1,200 people are showing up, said David Howard, chief executive of Event Group, a local planning agency, which is putting on 17 breakfasts during this year s Stampede. People think these are your daddy s breakfasts on the back of a cart, but these things are massive.
While many breakfasts are public events, others are exclusive, invite-only. Mr. Howard says one local company, which he declined to name, is spending $100,000 to fly in a top-tier country singer to its breakfast to sing two songs.
Tom McCabe, the president of Theatre Calgary, a local theater company, says he comes for the business, too. Asked how many breakfasts one can go to during Stampede, Mr. McCabe said, Depends on how much your stomach can take.
At Olympic Plaza, a public square in downtown Calgary, a breakfast is hosted every morning by Stampede organizers and volunteers. Pancakes here come with butter and syrup cooked into the batter. Pancakes cheap hotel las vegas are wrapped around bacon, and served on napkins or eaten by hand. Cowboy cutlery, volunteers call it.