Jason Tate is Mr Nashville North. He has been the host and MC of the Nashville North music tent for sixteen years and he is as charismatic off stage as he is on stage. Tate is at the tent for at least 13 hours a day for the 11 days off stampede and his energy never wavers. If you’ve been to Nashville North, you’ve seen Tate getting the crowd going, introducing the acts and, if you’re lucky, heard his best ‘hawk tuah’ impression over the sound system…

I caught up with Tate to talk about how the Nashville North has changed over his sixteen year tenure, what his fondest memories are and just how he keeps himself going across those 11 days of Calgary Stampede.

OK. Can we throwback to your first Stampede – can you remember what that was like?

Oh, I was nervous AF and I don’t know why. I’d done lots of hosting and stuff before but this was kind of a unique experience. When they hired me they were going through a big change. They wanted to transition from what Nashville North was to something a little bit more of a party festival than what it was.

Why did they choose you? Did you ask them or did they ask you?

No, they asked me. I’d done a lot of stuff with a professional Canadian football team here – The Stampeders – and I’d also worked for The Flames doing some announcing and stuff like that and I have a history in the music ‘biz.

You have the voice – the MC, announcer voice – did you train into that or did you just wake up one day and realise you could do it?

I never trained into it. I talk differently when I’m on the stage because you have to speed up and slow down, enunciate in different ways, but it’s still just me through a PA system. The PA does all the magic. I’m just the guy who drinks beer and spits stuff out.

So, 16 years on, what has the evolution of Stampede been like?

The spirit of it remains the same, but what’s changed is, 16 years ago there was two tents that provided music festival here in the city. Now, there’s probably over eight or nine. So it’s changed from a rodeo, chuckwaggon, agricultural exhibition to a more international music festival. And that’s the big reason behind the impetus of me starting was, ‘OK let’s go from this to this’ because the bosses and the powers that be saw it coming. It’s awesome.

And you’ve always been on the Nashville North stage?

Always been on the Nash stage.

Has it always been called that?

No, they used to call it ‘88 street for the ’88 Olympics but I’m not that old! It became Nashville North and it’s interesting because back then, the stage used to be inside the tent, the green room that we’re sitting in now, that used to be inside the tent too. And there was no beer garden around the outside so maybe capacity back then was 1300 people. It was pretty intimate. We had waggon wheel chandeliers and a parquet wood dance floor, and people would come out and line dance and two step.

How have the crowds changed over the years?

I think they’ve probably gotten a little bit younger, but I don’t think it’s much. I think old farts like myself would say, ‘oh god it’s so young in there now,’ but the reality is no, I’m just old. It’s a rite of passage though. What’s interesting is, during COVID, all of those 18-year-olds missed that rite of passage to come down to Stampede and, you know, put on their boots and come and have a really good time. It was really young the year after restrictions lifted and we were allowed to come back. Now it’s kind of levelled off again. But everybody was trying to cram in here for all the stuff they missed back when COVID happened.

What I’m learning is that people are really proud of it and it’s part of being from Calgary.

Calgary is kind of a unique city in that we have a lot of Head Offices for corporate companies across Canada and so when they do that funding, they get behind what the city is in to and I think that Calgarians for the most part, whether you’ve been here your entire life – I’m third generation Calgarian which is unheard of – or you’re a landed immigrant that got here six months ago, the western hospitality and our western culture is off putting to some, but I find it to be really warm and embracing. And that’s what draws me back every year. I get to host a party for 1500 people 16 years ago to 5000+ people now.

This year so far, what has been the biggest crowd pulling night?

I think probably Ashley [McBryde] to be honest with you. Mid-week, you kind of worry that you’re going to get a lull because people have partied hard for four days straight but no, she packed it out in here. She’s unbelievable. Megan [Moroney] too, she’s a rockstar.

The headliners are all great.
They are all great and what I love about the stage too is, we just said that two of the best nights were female headliners. That’s another thing that’s important to this stage and I know that the booking and production company does a really good job at trying to get it 50/50 or weigh even more heavily on that other side that got ignored for so long. If you talk to the guys at Stampede Entertainment, it is on purpose.

Do you try and get Calgarian/Canadian artists and then fill the gaps or is it just who is big?

I think that we like to promote Canadian artists, or local artists, even Alberta, I think that we try that so that you can see that during the acts that are on stage during the day. I’m not the best one to ask but everything is done with intent so yeah, we want to promote, we want to grow, and country music is really important to this town.

Country music is on the rise – even over in the UK – do you think you’d see a crowd for the Nashville North stage like you get for the Coke stage?

Oh yeah. And the Coke stage has put on massive country artists – Shania Twain played here (a gazillion years ago). There is at least one big Country act out there that packs out that stage. Over at Big Four – Shakey Graves, The Revivalists, I mean that’s kind of a Blue Grass thing but I dig those cats man. Then of course you get the big acts in the ‘Dome, right, like Miranda Lambert.

So, this is Day 11 for you because of Sneak a Peek and you have to be here at 4pm?

First band goes on at 4pm, I have to be here at 2pm.

And then people leave at 3am?

3am, yeah.

How are you looking after yourself during this?

Budweiser.

Ha! That’s getting you through but what do you to take care of yourself?

I get home between three and four, take a shower, I crawl into bed, I sleep for five hours, get up and have another shower and then come on over. Then it’s Bud, Smartwater, Bud, Smartwater…

One of the artists I’ve interviewed mentioned that the support bands are like family here.

Yeah, some of them started off doing one day and moved up to four days and some of them have been standing on that stage for up to a decade. I know all of them, I’ve been to their weddings, I’ve seen their children being born. I’ve stood on this stage with Ian Tyson, and I’ve stood on this stage with Tristan Horncastle and I’ve listened to great musicians and storytellers and family that made me laugh ‘til the tears ran down my face to hardship because we had a death in our family this year – our Stampede family – and it is truly a family.

I think that’s what Stampede is all about.

I think that’s what Stampede is all about, but I also think that’s what Calgary is all about. You’d be hard pressed to find a place you couldn’t walk into – if you’re sat at the local pub and you’re having a pint, you’ll be introduced to 100 people, it doesn’t matter, all year round.

I’ve done a lot of this on my own and I’m only standing on my own for a few minutes before I’ve made a friend.

Oh, good luck being a wallflower, they won’t let you!

What do you think the biggest night in your sixteen years here has

(takes a minute) I don’t know…

OK which night holds the fondest memory?

The fondest memory for me? There’s probably three that stick out in my head. One sitting out back when Kiefer Sutherland played here and just sitting there talking with him while he chain-smoked cigarettes. He sent his entire team away and he was like, I’m not going anywhere, I’m sitting here with you. We sat on a picnic table behind the stage and talked about nonsense.
I think another memorable one was Lukas Nelson – Willie Nelson’s kid – he got up on that deck and played and it was him and his band. He got up on there in his bare feet and I was like, are you sure you want to do that – not only are they going to turn black but it’s a little dangerous? And he danced out there barefoot for an hour and a half, hour and forty-five minutes singing his heart out and then he came back and sat there for another hour and forty-five minutes pulling splinters out of his toes. And he would have gone for another two hours.

Then I’ve got a buddy his name is Trevor Panczak, he’s an Alberta boy who started in his teen doing a western future talent show so from that all the way to headlining here. Those are the moments you remember.
Those are my memories, I don’t know what the crowd would say.

It’s interesting isn’t it, the most memorable nights aren’t necessarily the biggest names but more the moments that have touched you.

Oh yeah. Like we had a downpour that put a stop to everything, so we sat out back and played poker for hours.

So, you’ve done 16 years at Stampede. Do you think you’ve got another 16 in you?

No way. I’m 52 years old. I have a couple left but I’ve got to pass the torch to somebody.

Have you got any ideas?

No. Somebody has to come in here and make it their own thing. I have my thing and people have said, like, are you going to train somebody? How do you train somebody? They’ve got to have their thing and their ‘shtick’ whatever that might be and go out there and do it.

Last year was my fifteenth anniversary and they surprised me by going through some photos and they said, do you realise that you are tagged – because they tag every photo taken at Stampede – in over 37000 photographs in fifteen years?
I just want to create an environment where everyone can celebrate and really enjoy music and each other. We’re not like other tents, we don’t have fights, it’s rare to see anybody kicked out.

Can you sum Stampede up in three words?

Fun, music and love.

What item must be in your bag at Stampede?

Band-Aids – for your feet. Band-Aids or blister patches, everyone asks for those!