‘Canada comes together’: Rider Nation makes pilgrimage to Winnipeg for Grey Cup Festival

Life-long Roughrider fans Kevin and Shane Schultz from Carlyle, Sask. meet with friends Dean and Sherry Zacharias from Alberta each year at the Grey Cup Festival (Donovan Maess)

Saskatchewan Roughriders’ fans from across the country have descended on Winnipeg, Man. for this year’s Grey Cup Festival.

“It’s something [we] never miss,” said long-time fan Kevin Schultz. “It is always on the calendar and my kids know to not decorate the house for Christmas until the Riders are out of the playoffs.”

Schultz and his wife Shane are from Carlyle, Sask. The Grey Cup has become an annual tradition for the couple to meet up with friends Dean and Sherry Zacharias, who live near Edmonton.

“I was born [in Saskatchewan],” Dean said about his love for the Riders. “That’s the way it is.”

“[Kevin and I] have been doing Labour Day for 38 years. This is my 15th Grey Cup. It’s just a family reunion.”

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Ken and Tyler Hudgeon, Sheldon Stener, Nancy Malone, Michelle Stro and Cathy Morin wore matching track suits to the festival Friday night.

The group is spread out between Edmonton and Calgary in Alberta as well as throughout Saskatchewan.

Between them, they have attended more than 50 Grey Cups as fans.

“All of Canada comes together in one place,” Malone said. “You meet a ton of people from across the country and there’s so many people who come every year. We see the same people every year and you don’t see them any other time.”

“It doesn’t matter which team you cheer for, everyone talks with each other,” Stro added.

Walking throughout the festival, each and every CFL team is represented by their fans repping jerseys, flags, pom poms or even extravagant costumes.

Tara Watson and her friends took on the role of Grey Cup party referees for the evening, dressing up in the traditional black and white stripes for the festivities.

2025 is Watson’s 35th Grey Cup.

“We’ve just made it a girls weekend,” she said. “We’ve met so many people from travelling every year we get to see events. It’s like a family.”

This year is different for Roughrider fans who have not seen their team play in a Grey Cup game since 2013 in Regina.

“It’s stressful,” Stro said.

“We were there in 2013 when they won it and it would be great to see them do it again,” added Malone.

“Everyone has something in common, which is football,” Schultz said. “It brings everyone together. Everyone’s happy and everyone’s celebrating their team and the camaraderie in the CFL.”

The weekend’s Grey Cup festivities run through to kickoff Sunday evening at various locations in Winnipeg.

Coverage for the 112th Grey Cup begins noon Saskatchewan time on TSN and CTV with kickoff scheduled for 5 p.m.