CALGARY - It’s the not-so-secret reality of the Calgary Stampede every year.

Mix a party atmosphere with flowing alcohol and you have a recipe for debauchery and questionable behaviour that can destroy relationships.

Karen Stewart sees its every year with her Fairways Divorce Solutions business in Calgary, which was launched in 2006 and is a mediation alternative dispute resolution company that offers couples an opportunity to go through a process to bring a resolution to their divorce.

“We have offices all across Canada,” she said. “So because of that, we are always looking at the analytics. What happens from city to city and season to season. There’s always a spike in Calgary after Stampede. And we’ve seen that consistently since 2006.

“People who have come through Stampede and they’ve got to that point where they’re making a decision to take the next step and the next step means looking at moving down the world of separation.”

Relative to the rest of the cities across Canada, the spike in the number of calls is about 40 to 50 per cent higher in Calgary.

Stewart said anytime there is an event around a holiday or special occasion where people step away from the hustle and bustle of life, and alcohol is consumed, there is a rise in people taking the steps to end their marriages.

“For the Stampede, particularly, it’s kind of got the whole mix of them all. It’s a bit of a vacation. Lot of alcohol consumption. Sometimes spouses are out without each other. For people who are in a place of vulnerability going into Stampede, this can be a time where it can break the camel’s back,” said Stewart. “For couples that are happy and healthy and have great relationships, it’s the opposite. It’s an actual bond builder. Just like holidays are.”

The Stampede party atmosphere is conducive for people letting their guard down, she said.

“We know that marriages begin and marriages end at Stampede,” said Stewart. “That’s sort of been a cliche for the last 30 years. That trend continues.

“Stampede is a family affair and it’s a great place. But it’s also a place that can bring things to a head to what may have been moving in that direction in the first place.”

She said there is a misnomer that infidelity happens more on the male side but that’s not the case. It’s pretty much half and half from what she has seen.

“One year after Stampede, we had a couple come in and it had been a Stampede event that had blown them up and then two days later another couple came in and it turned out that something happened between the four of them that all this happened,” said Stewart. “There’s lots of juicy stories about bad behaviour. When people are talking about their divorce, it’s very funny, they want to tell you way more than you want to know.”

And the way people dress for the Stampede, or don’t dress, is very revealing.

Just the other day, Stewart was sitting in her truck and an attractive young woman walked by who was wearing only a little strip of clothing around her chest and another little strip around her butt.