THUNDER BAY - With great weather, entertaining performances, and fun rides, the Canadian Lakehead Exhibition is celebration another successful Family Fair.
“I would say very successful,” said CLE president, Al Law. “The whole entertainment package was good. The four main stage band acts went really well. I would say all areas are up. Attendance, all the vendors are happy.”
The Family Fair opened last Wednesday and wrapped up on Sunday with the Sensational Hot Rods taking to the main stage followed by a fireworks display.
According to Law, the musical acts were a huge hit and brought in a diverse crowd, even if they were geared toward an older audience.
“The main stage entertainment with those four acts from Wednesday and even tonight you would say is for the older crowd, but there were some millennials in there,” he said.
Law said the Fair brought in more than 55,000 people throughout the five days, which is on par with previous years.
And as with every year, there were some minor hiccups, but Law said there were no real issues that could not be handled.
“There are little things. There’s always little fires you have to put out,” he said. “There’s a little bit of alcohol confiscated by security, a little bit of drugs confiscated. If there are issues, security have the authority to escort them off the grounds.”
There were also some concerns by fair-goers that advanced ticket sales ended on Sunday as opposed to Tuesday, but Law said it worked out well for both the CLE and Metro.
“If there was a hiccup, a few calls regarding that we stopped advanced sales on the Sunday instead of the Tuesday,” he said. “It worked out perfectly for Metro, that was their idea and it worked out perfectly for us because we were able to get tickets back early and Grant Thorton representative does the reconciliation of the tickets, especially Metro, and we are able to get that to the Metro headquarters early and that is a benefit to everybody.”
Now that the Family Fair has come and gone for another year, Law said the committees will meet to discuss what went well and what can be improved upon for next year, with the planning already underway.
“We may look at putting up another shade tent because that was well used this year,” Law said. “We just signed a new five-year agreement with Select Shows and Canuck Amusements. Next weekend they will be at Murillo.”
