Saskatoon Ex sets attendance record in 2021

A lot of people showed up for the Saskatoon Exhibition in 2021 — enough to set an all-time record.

According to Prairieland Park, who organizes the annual summertime event, 230,528 people passed through the gates during the eight-day event. 2021 also marked the return of the Ex for the first time since 2019, thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Sunday saw 25,695 pass through the gates. That pushed the event over the previous attendance record, set in 2012, of 221,154.

The event typically runs for five or six days in August, but after the 2020 cancellation, the organizers moved to the eight-day fair, with two days set in the middle of the event, closing for cleaning.

2020 was the first time in the Ex’s history that it was canceled. The Ex first began as a way to show that the community of Saskatoon was ready to become a larger centre, according to Kristy Rempel, Prairieland Park’s marketing manager.

“The Exhibition, way back when, was started to sort of prove that the temperance colony of Saskatoon was ready to become a full-fledged city. It showed the economic and agricultural viability of the area, and it’s been going on every single year since,” she told 650 CKOM on May 11, 2020.

2021 was the 136th year of the Ex’s operation. The first year was in 1885.