Organizers of the Canadian National Exhibition say the return of Toronto’s annual summer fair after two years of absence has been largely successful.
“What we have seen is really an enthusiastic response,” said CNE CEO Darrell Brown, who said the fair saw about a 10 per cent increase in attendance compared to 2019, the last time it was held.
He said attendance is usually affected by weather — even a gloomy forecast that never comes to fruition can affect people’s decision to come to the fair. This past Saturday there were 110,000 attendees, he said, noting they could have clocked more than 150,000 if the forecast had been better.
There was a bit of a concern that the general public would hold back after two years of COVID-19 restrictions, but it appears people were ready to come out and have a good time at the fair.
The final figures won’t be available until a few days after the Ex is over, but Brown estimated they could surpass the 1.6 million record set in 2015.
“Overall, we couldn’t be happier in terms of what the enthusiasm is as well as the overall attendance,” he said.
Earlier reports indicated the fair lost more than $8 million for cancelling the 2020 and 2021 events, and missed out on more than $70 million in possible revenue for both years.
Brown said it’s impossible to recover such losses in just one fair but was hopeful that things will stabilize in the coming years with the ability to accommodate more people and vendors on the grounds.
Preliminary numbers also show there has been about a 40 per cent increase in ride usage and revenues compared to last time, with a similar increase reported by food vendors.
This year, the CNE offered 20,000 free passes to families from underprivileged communities, and allowed children from schools across the GTA the option to download free admission passes.
Brown also addressed the labour dispute that saw inspectors from the Technical Standards and Safety Authority stage a strike at the beginning of the fair. He said reports of safety issues on the grounds were not accurate, because the CNE has its own engineering corps that makes sure everything is safe for the public to use.
“There was no reduction in terms of oversight and there were no safety issues that were created because of this labour dispute,” he said. “I Just think it was unfortunate that we had a lot of disruptions from picketers at the opening ceremony.”
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