Get ready to Whoop It Up!

By Herald on July 16, 2021.

Riders on the Yoyo swings blur past other midway rides and lights during a previous Whoop-Up Days at Exhibition Park. Herald file photo by Ian Martens

Al Beeber – Lethbridge Herald

Whoop-Up Days are back!

After COVID took the fun out of last summer with the cancellation of regular Whoop-Up Days programming, Lethbridge’s annual fair is returning to Exhibition Park in September.

Mike Warkentin, Chief Executive Officer of the Lethbridge & District Exhibition, said Friday Whoop-Up Days will be staged from Sept. 2-5 at the Exhibition grounds.

Due to the financial impact COVID had on people, admission to the fair will be free, he told media.

Because of construction on the Agri-food Hub and Trade Centre, parking will be limited and Warkentin is urging people attending the fair to use public transit. Parking is also free this year.

One noticeable absence this year will be a parade. Warkentin said due to logistics and the resources needed to stage a successful parade, organizers decided to leave it off the schedule.

The final day Whoop-Up Days will coincide with the start of the fall race meet at the Rocky Mountain Turf Club.

“As a special element of this year’s event, to celebrate the extension of our lease together and our partnership, Rocky Mountain Turf Club will be kicking off its fall meet with a day at the races on Sunday, Sept. 5 to round out the weekend,” he said.

With students back in school, the fun will start at 4 p.m. on Sept. 2 and run until 11 p.m., he said.

On Sept. 3 and 4, the fair will be open at noon and close at midnight.

No rodeo will be part of the fair due to the fact other rodeos are taking part on the Labour Day weekend elsewhere, Warkentin said.

The fair will feature a smaller sized midway put on by Wild Rose Shows plus daily entertainment and a beer garden in Heritage Hall. The midway will still offer popular rides, Warkentin said, but they will be spaced out.

The fair will also have food trucks on site, in addition to the usual midway fare provided by Wild Rose Shows.

“It will have the same sights, sounds and smells of the midway,” he said.

The date change was made to accommodate the midway, he added.

“We knew as we got closer to this reopening that the city wanted this level of celebration. Obviously, there’s been some successes up the road this week in Calgary and we wanted to ensure we could have that same level of celebration in this community. What culminates summer better than a midway in southern Alberta?

“So it was an important element we wanted to include this year. There were some challenges with the midway industry this year so that is accommodating the midway.”

West Coast Amusements is running in the lower mainland of B.C., he said, but due to the short lead time and B.C. being under a different level of restriction than in Alberta ,“they couldn’t run their full gamut this year,” he added.

“Due to some of the time challenges and construction limitations to the site, a few of the historical elements of the fair will not be included. That includes the downtown parade and the western events portfolio. We look forward to both of these returning in 2022. The history of this event is as old as this community, and although it may not look the same as it has in recent years, we cannot wait to welcome people back and we can’t wait to see everyone at Whoop-Up Days in September.

“As we’ve been able to open, it has been fantastic to have people back in the pavilions. Last week was a tremendous week here at the park with three separate events attracting thousands of people and I’ve just got to say from our perspective here, it was awesome to have people back,” Warkentin said.

“One thing has become exceptionally clear by the amount of questions we get, calls coming in, emails, questions at the grocery stores, what is happening with Whoop-Up Days this year. The importance of this event as a community celebration has never been more important and the reality is that we knew with the building being constructed, Whoop-Up Days wouldn’t look the same for the next couple of years,” said Warkentin.

“We wanted to ensure everybody who is ready to and everybody who wanted to, could experience the sights, sounds, smells and of course, tastes of everything that is Whoop Up Days.

“We also felt that there are a lot of people in the greater community that have had a couple tough years, which is why this year Whoop-Up Days will have free admission for people to attend.”

Warkentin expects the parade to be back next year.

“The parade is one of the truly unique gathering times when this community comes together in droves and we wanted to make sure the parade could be that same experience for the people of Lethbridge that it would normally be so we look forward to welcoming the parade back in 2022.”

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