REGINA — The 2022 Queen City Ex is in the books and according to organizers it was a smash hit, breaking all attendance records.
Numbers released by Regina Exhibition Association Ltd. (REAL) in a news release Tuesday report a total of 278,306 attending during the five days of the Ex from Aug. 3 to 7. This total beat the previous record in 2019 by 18 per cent.
“Our team is absolutely blown away by the reaction to this year’s exhibition,” said Tim Reid, president, and CEO of REAL, in a statement. “Thank you to everyone, young and old, that chose to celebrate fun at our fair. We know the infinite memories made will last a lifetime. The community support was amazing to see and we can’t wait to do it all again next year.”
Reid thanked the sponsors for supporting the event, saying “we can’t do this without you.” He also paid tribute to the staff.
“To our staff and partners, especially SaskTel, what an amazing five days. You helped thousands of people from across our province have the chance to turn up the fun during a staple of Saskatchewan summers, the QCX, and they will not soon forget it.”
Here are some statistical highlights of this year’s Ex, as reported by REAL in their news release Tuesday:
REAL is reporting an estimated economic benefit to Regina of $12.8 million.
For the midway, there were 385,000 tickets sold.
The Original 16 Stage included what organizers describe as the largest concert in the history of the Ex featuring the multi-platinum singer, songwriter, and dancer Jason Derulo.
The Pile O’Bones Rodeo also saw attendance records with more than 7,700 people taking in that event on Thursday and Friday.
At Friday night’s First Annual Mini-Donut Eating Competition, $63,540 was raised for the Regina Food Bank for 190,620 meals. 255 mini doughnuts were consumed by professional eater Joey Chestnut. Maguire Abell from University of Regina Rams Football downed 76 to finish second while Rebellion Brewing President Mark Heise was third, eating 61. The top fundraiser was nine-year-old Juliana Denouden who raised $15,240, matched by her family’s company Avana Builds.
Those attending the Ex also ate plenty of mini-doughnuts, with 220,000 consumed in total.
The Ex also reports the following were also consumed over the five days: 2,459 corn dogs were eaten, 137,549 oz of Saskatchewan brewed Original 16 beverages were enjoyed, 15,000 pancakes were served at SaskMilk Family Day Pancake Breakfast, 1,200 prairie stacks were eaten, 2,000 Cyclone signature drinks were sold and over 1,000,000 litres of water were consumed by REAL staff.
On the final day Sunday, 2,100 pounds of food donations were collected from the SaskMilk Flip for Hunger Pancake Breakfast, with more than 15,000 pancakes flipped.
