Ian Glen Kinney hit 35 pancake breakfasts at this year's Calgary Stampede

Ian Kinney/Facebook | GCapture/Shutterstock

So many Calgary Stampede pancake breakfasts, so little time.

Sure, there are all the recently announced Midway food items, great patios near the grounds to hop onto, and all of the awesome tents, but the pancakes might be our favourite food at The Greatest Outdoor Show on Earth.

Every year, there are so many pancake breakfasts all over the city, but for one Calgarian, this is just a challenge.

From July 5 to July 16, Ian Kinney went and ate at 35 Stampede breakfasts. Last year he went to 34. The year before that he made it to 32.

That’s averaging roughly three pancake breakfasts every single day at the Stampede. These free breakfasts are often in the morning and scattered all across the city so it’s a very impressive feat.

Dished got the chance to connect with Kinney about this sugary sweet feat, and what the motivation behind it is.

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“I ride my bicycle to as many Stampede breakfasts as I can,” Kinney told Dished.

“This year, I woke up at 5 am July 8 and July 10 to be one of the first in line at Chinook Centre and the McDougall Centre respectively. I made it to four breakfasts on both days, but I average roughly three breakfasts a day during Stampede,” Kinney added.

Some of the consistent food staples he noticed after visiting so many breakfasts included pancakes, sausages, and beans. Some of them would have scrambled eggs, bacon, and coffee, while a select few will offer fresh fruit as well.

“I believe that I ate somewhere around 70 pancakes plus 70 sausages plus fixin’s,” said Kinney.

When asked what his favourite spots were, he mentioned that the Co-Op and Stampede Caravan breakfasts were essential.

He was also “pleasantly surprised by a vegan breakfast hosted by the Alice Sanctuary in the west end of Inglewood one morning.”

“They didn’t advertise their breakfast, they were simply there to hand out delicious vegan patties and fluffy, baking powder-filled, pancakes,” Kinney told Dished.

“They were the most flavourful patties that I had throughout all of Stampede and they didn’t have a smidgen of meat.”

He said the lineup stretched around the block, which isn’t uncommon for a Stampede breakfast.

Kinney biked over 215 km to hit all of these breakfasts. Over the course of the 11 days, he got into one bike accident, took notice of the ongoing climate crisis biking through smoky skies, and “made the mistake of mentioning the prime minister during two conversations with strangers.”

So why does Kinney do this?

In 2008, Kinney fell seven storeys and lives with a traumatic brain and spinal cord injury. One of the doctors still reminds him that 80% of people who fall six storeys die on impact.

“The rehabilitative process from my injuries was extensive and harrowing, but moving through that taught me a few things: one was that food is life, another is that my body can accomplish more than I think so long as I take care of myself, and yet another is that people tend to want to help each other if they can,” said Kinney.

Kinney has spent his entire life in Calgary and finds the energy of the city during the Stampede “unmistakable” and “contagious.” His desire to share a free meal with YYC neighbours initially inspired this pancake journey.

“I discovered that with a bit of planning, and with the use of the right website, I could attend more and more free breakfasts every year,” said Kinney.

“Why? Because a) I love free food (which is one way to say that food insecurity is very real in this city/country), and b) the more of this city that I bike through, and the more of its people with whom I break bread, then the more that I feel that I am genuinely a part of this city and a member of its many communities, and not just some consumer cog in an intricate lattice of suburbs, malls, condos and roadways.”

It’s an inspirational, feel-good story that is one reason why the Stampede is so important to Calgary. It isn’t just tents, rodeos, and neon hot dogs (even though we love all of those things…), it’s how the city bands together.

So what does this pancake enthusiast have planned for the 2024 Calgary Stampede?

“Same as this year — ride my bike to 37 Stampede Breakfasts.”

Kinney is a writer, photographer, percussionist, dancer, and gardener. He works as a house sitter, a caretaker, a farmhand, and a radical mental health doula.

Kinney has an MA in English from the University of Calgary and even turned his thesis into Air Salt which is a book of poetry.

“I live and care for Treaty 7 land. I occasionally care for my parents’ self-sustaining homestead and free-range farm just off of the Canadian badlands, in what was once Káínaa territory between what is now Vulcan County and Lethbridge County.”

Catch Kinney at one (or 30) of the Stampede breakfasts next year!