The ThunderBlogs

Scattered pockets of loyal BC Lions tailgaters gathered Saturday outside Empire Field as they prepared to support their team in its match against the Hamilton Tiger Cats.

The air, sweeter than ketchup, was thick with the smell of pig fat dripping onto hot coals, and small plumes of smoke from portable barbeques floated up into an unexpectedly perfect blue sky.

It was 5:30 p.m., less than two hours from game time, and in accordance with BC Lions rules and regulations that stipulate tailgating can only begin three hours before a match, the party should have been at its peak. But it was all so… pedestrian. Where was the beer-soaked, raucous bash? Whither the muscled men with stomachs painted orange and black, the women sporting faux-lion fur bikinis? What of the flatbed trucks stacked with speakers and dance stages?

In fact, the tailgaters were a reserved, relatively disjointed community. Large reclining lawn chairs were arranged in semi-circles around food that was consumed with proper cutlery and napkins. Conversation was relaxed in true Canadian fashion. The only real action to be found was up in the air, as children spiralled footballs above rows of empty vehicles.

So what was the attraction? Would anything have been lost if an early season decision to ban tailgating from Empire Stadium had not been overturned?

“It was like they were taking the fun out of the CFL,” said Clay Palmantier, who drove from Williams Lake to take part in the tailgating and promptly made friends with Andrew Rogers and his family.

“It’s an event. You get together, you have some fun, then you head into the game,” said Rogers. “If you only do the game, you’re missing the whole experience.”

The food might have been a motivator.

“I think the first week we had sandwiches and it’s grown to steak and lobster,” said Mike Edwards, who started tailgating this season.

But it was not until five hours later, when 21,000 dispirited hometown fans stood to leave the stadium following a disastrous fourth quarter and ultimate loss that tailgating truly began to make sense. Present among the crowd were a few hundred tailgaters like Edwards, who left knowing that at the very least he had enjoyed a barbeque with friends, or like Palmantier, who had made a few new ones.