The setting for two very different get-togethers. At Stampede Park, just east of downtown in the shadow of the Saddledome, the Hoot and Holler gala got the ball rolling as the first festive event of the Group of Eight summit.
Hundreds of reporters and G-8 delegates from around the world strolled outside, wearing gift white Stetsons, gladhanding with Calgary's mayor, eating barbecued beef on a bun and posing rodeo-rider-style for pictures on a stuffed bull.
"Tonight, of course, is an opportunity to showcase what Calgary is all about," said Mayor David Bronconnier, dressed in the local trademark blue jeans and western shirt.
"Great things are happening in this community and we feel it's important to show just some old fashioned western hospitality to visitors that are here."
About 10 blocks away at Central Memorial Park, about 1,000 G-8 protesters - most of them young adults dressed in halter tops, jean shorts and rag-tag military camouflage wear - gathered while police on bicycles circled nearby and the Calgary police helicopter buzzed overhead.
Their banners were words scrawled on bedsheets: Corporate Rule Advances Poverty and We're All in the Same Boat. Some had homemade T-shirts with the circle and red line through the G-8 logo.
Another flew an American flag with corporate logos - McDonald's, IBM - instead of the traditional stars in the upper left corner.
"The city of Calgary is throwing a party a few blocks over there to show how great the city is and to continue to lie about the Alberta Advantage!" one protester on a makeshift stage shouted to cheers and applause at the event, dubbed the Showdown at the Hoe-down.
The group then marched down a major avenue toward the Hoot and Holler. Police in squad cars and on bicycles kept ahead of them, closing off roads and diverting traffic as the protesters went past.
Sitting with a beer and watching the protest from the balcony of a pub, Luke Molyneux shook his head.
"I'm pretty cynical about most of their motives. They are into it for the scene. Most of them don't know what they're talking about."
The rally came to a stop on Macleod Trail, a major artery into the downtown, across from the G-8 party. About 50 people danced and shouted around a boom box playing hard rock tunes while the rest of the protesters milled about, chatting and smoking cigarettes.
Some bounced on a trampoline. Others played hackey-sack.
Police diverted traffic while officers on bicycles flanked protesters on both sides of the road. The riot squad hung in the background.
It was the second large protest rally in three days against the G-8 summit of world leaders, which begins Wednesday in the nearby mountain resort of Kananaskis.
Prime Minister Jean Chretien is hosting leaders from the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Russia and Japan.
On Sunday, a labour-sponsored protest through downtown was noisy but peaceful. About 2,500 people blew whistles, flew flags and dressed up as big-headed puppets to protest the G-8 policies they feel help only the rich while exploiting the poor and harming the environment.
Earlier Tuesday, the protests in Calgary took an X-rated turn when dozens of G-8 protesters stripped on the trendy downtown Stephen Avenue mall to protest a clothing store they say exploits Third World workers.
The strip action, titled We'd Rather Wear Nothing than Wear Gap, occurred outside a Gap clothing store. Women stripped off their shirts to reveal carefully positioned No-G8 stickers.
Some men stripped naked. At one point, six activists turned their backs to the crowd and pulled down their underwear to reveal a cheeky message - Boycott Gap!
RCMP and Calgary police stood along with scores of onlookers and camera-clickers. No arrests were made.
A spokesman for Gap said people are free to protest but rejected their accusations as untrue.
More protests are expected Wednesday morning. Activists are trying to rally large numbers of people to block the roads into the city core.
Calgary police say they're ready for any mayhem. Police number in the thousands from across Canada and are backed up by water cannon, pepper spray and two armoured rescue vehicles.
The local jail has been emptied, it's prisoners transferred to make room for arrested activists. Some courtrooms will sit from morning to night to process them.
Anti-G-8 rallies are also expected in Ottawa Wednesday as activists plan to march by the thousands and have hinted at vandalizing property.
Parliament Hill has been secured while glass fixtures on lamposts as well as steel gates have been removed, and public tours cancelled through Thursday.
Violent protests have become a fixture at summits of international leaders.
Earlier this month in Halifax, more than 30 people were arrested after police used tear gas and clashed with protesters who had charged a barricade at the G-7 finance ministers meeting.
Also Tuesday, the formal policy alternative to the summit, titled the G-6B conference - short for the Group of Six Billion people not at the G-8 table - wrapped up.
Non-governmental organizations and human rights groups like Amnesty International had met for five days at the University of Calgary.
In their closing news conference organizers called on the G-8 leaders to abolish the International Monetary Fund, the World Trade Organization and even G-8 summits, labelling them undemocratic and unrepresentative.
"I agree the WTO has not developed the way it should," said Foreign Affairs Minister Bill Graham, who attended the wrap-up and accepted the recommendations on behalf of the eight leaders.
"But I don't think honestly our position would be to abolish them.
"We have to reform them."
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