Murray Wood: Who's hot and who's not
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Regina Exhibition Association Limited revealed Wednesday the 2021 Queen City Ex set a new attendance record — and also announced the headliner for the 2022 fair.
Rapper Ice Cube is to hit the main stage on Aug. 5 next year, when the Ex returns to its normal time of year, right after the August long weekend.
“For those of you wondering about what next year is going to bring, next year is going to be bigger, it’s going to be bolder and it’s going to be better than it was this year,” REAL president and CEO Tim Reid said during a media conference Wednesday.
The 2021 fair attracted a total of 274,624 people to Evraz Place over eight days, breaking the previous attendance record set in 2019 by just over 40,000 people.
Reid celebrated that, given the constraints COVID-19 created for REAL in finding entertainers, rides and food vendors.
“After 745 days between our last sale of a corndog, 18 months of wondering what the future might be, we did it,” Reid said. “We were constantly challenged about our decision to plan as if this event was going to go ahead and as we celebrate the completion of this year’s fair, I think that was absolutely the right decision.”
The 2020 Queen City Ex was cancelled due to the pandemic and some questioned the decision to hold the fair in 2021.
Reid said REAL took precautions every night with enhanced cleaning of the grounds, the equipment and guest spaces. As of Wednesday, REAL had yet to be told by the Saskatchewan Health Authority of a positive COVID case associated with the fair.
Getting the QCX back into the public eye also was important to Reid.
“For us, this was about delivering a fair, reminding our customer base that, ‘Hey, for 136 years we’ve been doing this and we want it to go for another century for the next generations,’ ” he said.
“Even though it was important fiscally, it was much more important to the sustainability and longevity of this event that we found a way to make it happen in 2021.”
In previous years, the fair ran over five days, but Reid said the best five days this year outperformed the best five days of the 2019 fair.
“Given the challenges of COVID-19, the challenges of weather, the challenges of shifting timeline for our schedule, the fact that we produced five of the very best days in the history of the Queen City Ex was something to celebrate,” he said.
Reid noted the 2021 fair had an economic impact of more than $11.3 million on Regina while also assisting those in need in the city, collecting more than 3,000 pounds of food for the Regina Food Bank.
Evraz Place played host to a Saskatchewan Roughriders game during the Ex, which was a major boon for the fair.
“Doing that game at 5 o’clock on a Saturday was truthfully record-setting,” Reid said. “I’m not sure that anybody has hosted a 100,000-person event in Canada this year — and we were able to do so.
“It was a game that started early in the afternoon because about 20,000 Rider fans found their way through the gates and they enjoyed the fair. Then everybody checked into Mosaic Stadium and then after the game, they all checked back into (the fair) to watch a few concerts.”
REAL provided some statistics about the 2021 Ex, saying patrons ate 156,842 mini donuts, 15,040 candy apples, 13,655 corndogs and 10,786 pounds of poutine, and drank 688,078 ounces of lemonade and 126,549 ounces of Original 16.
The 2022 Queen City Ex is set for Aug. 3-7.
— With files from 980 CJME’s Britton Gray
