QCX wraps up with largest attendance in exhibition’s history

The Queen City Exhibition had its largest attendance year to date in 2022, with some 278,306 people hitting the grounds for rides, games and entertainment.

“I can confirm that we just completed our best fair in 138 years,” Regina Exhibition Association Limited president and CEO Tim Reid said Tuesday.

“It was the best attendance we have ever had in 138 years, it was the best revenue and (it was) the best earnings.”

Attendance numbers were up by 18 per cent from the previous five-day fair in 2019, and also beat numbers from the 2021 eight-day fair.

The QCX also had an economic impact of $12.8 million.

“We have always had a good fair, but this is the year we transferred from a good fair to a great fair,” said Reid.

This year’s performance by Jason Derulo was the largest grandstand in QCX history at Confederation Park.

In the beer gardens, more than 137,549 ounces of Original 16 beverages were consumed.

“The Queen City Ex is more exciting and relevant than it has ever been,” said Reid.

The year also had record-breaking numbers with more than 15,000 flapjacks flipped for the SaskMilk Family Day Pancake Breakfast and more than 7,700 people at the two-night Pile O’ Bones rodeo.

According to Reid, investments that were made in safety, cleaning and programming have paid off in the long run.

“Incidents were down (and) the severity of incidents were down, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t still work to be done,” said Reid.

On Sunday, the final day of the Exhibition, 40 guests were hit by bear spray near the ferris wheel. Police are still investigating the incident.

Reid said this was also the largest year for fundraising for the Regina community.

On Friday, different community partners gathered with competitive eater Joey Chestnut in a mini donut-eating competition. Chestnut won the competition by eating 255 mini-donuts in eight minutes. The competition raised $63,540 for the Regina Food Bank, which equates to 190,620 meals.

Fairgoers consumed 220,000 mini-donuts throughout the week.

They also ate 2,459 corndogs as well as 1,200 prairie stacks, a two-foot-long skewer full of perogies and sausage topped with sour cream and green onion.

On top of entertainment and food, 385,000 ride tickets were sold.

Reid said the hospitality and airline industries catered to more people coming to Regina for the week.

“When we do events that drive the market beyond Regina, it’s going to help our economy,” said Reid, who noted the goal remains to make Regina’s fair one of the best in Canada.

The 2023 QCX is slated for Aug. 2-6.