On Thursday, May 15th, Prairieland Park CEO Dan Keppainen announced exciting new additions to the Saskatoon Exhibition.
This year marks the 14oth annual Saskatoon Ex and to celebrate, Keppainen will be hosting the festival for eight days to extend the fun. The kickoff parade will take place on Wednesday, July 30th and the Exhibition will officially begin on Thursday, July 31st and will run until Thursday, Aug. 7th.
This year, the Saskatoon Ex has a star-studded lineup of artist at the SaskTel Grandstand. Juno award winners Metric will be kicking off the fair with multi-Platinum group High Valley to follow. Over the Exhibition weekend, Loverboy will hit the stage, followed by the Crash and Bash Demolition Derby.
The last days of the Ex will see the Grammy-nominated band Smash Mouth, CCMA winner Corb Lund and pop icons TLC.
But that is not all — over at the adult-only Kickin’ Horse Saloon, seven artists are set to take the stage over the Ex. First off is Steven Page from The Barenaked Ladies, then Canadian country-rock band The Road Hammers.
Vocalist Lee Aaron will take the stage on Saturday, followed by hard rock band Danko Jones on Monday. Closing out the final days of the Ex will be The Washboard Union, Sass Jordan and Bif Naked.
Keppainen shared that this year, 100 per cent of the rides will be supplied by North America Midway Entertainment. This means more seats on rides to shorten wait times and a bigger selection of rides to choose from for the thrill seekers.
Fan favourite food vendors will also be back this year, alongside new concessionaires from all over Canada.
Last year, the Saskatoon Ex saw around 200,000 guests; this year, Prairieland is predicting that attendance will go up by 30 to 50,000 people. Unfortunately, due to all the exciting new features to this year’s Ex, admission prices will be going up. Keppainen did not share how much of an increase we will be seeing.
To find out more information check out the video above.