The Canadian National Exhibition (C.N.E.) is the country's largest annual fair, stretching two kilometres over Exhibition Place and attracting an average of 1.3 million people each year. David Bednar, the general manager of the C.N.E. since 1998, has worked to bring the 18-day exhibition up to date while keeping traditional (and family-friendly) elements in mind. Close to 600 exhibitors and 105 food vendors will be at this year's event, which starts tomorrow, and runs until September 1. We asked Bednar about running one of Canada's oldest events—which ranked as the No. 1 public exhibition in our annual list of Toronto's Top 100 events.
The C.N.E. is in its 130th year. How do you keep things fresh?
It's a balancing act. We couldn't have a C.N.E. without a food building; we couldn't have a C.N.E. without a midway; and now you would say we probably wouldn't have one without a SuperDog show. But then you've got to change things up. We had the human cannon ball for three years; and that was a great show, but we thought it was time to change; and that's why we decided to move to the escape artist this year. So it's about providing new things, providing a really fun, full experience, and hanging onto some of the traditions people really love and want to see.
What are some of the standout events at this year's C.N.E.?
It's a pretty long list of new stuff. We've got Hippike, a combined horse and aerial acrobatic show. We've got Jump Jet, which is a circus troupe doing an evening performance on Princes' Boulevard. The third big one is the illusionist Kevin Ridgeway—and Kristen Johnson, who is an escape artist. A lot of this is what I'm now calling "cutting-edge nostalgia." All of these acts are, in their own ways, old-fashioned, traditional acts, but they've got a bit of a new twist to them.
Are there any new strategies in place this year to increase publicity and attendance?
We've gotten some assistance from the Province of Ontario with regard to the Jump Jet program, the evening show, and that extends to some additional money for marketing, so we're actually going out and buying ads [in media outlets located] an hour and a half to two hours outside of the GTA to try to encourage people from farther away to attend. In terms of the advertising campaign, we concentrate on outdoor, radio, and print, and we do promotions with different media outlets. And we're spending a little more marketing money this year than we have in previous years, so it'll be interesting to see how that all plays out.
What are you doing to make the C.N.E. more environmentally friendly?
We've had a green day and a green display for the past six years, and we work hand-in-hand with Exhibition Place, which is on the cutting edge of the green movement with things like Canada's only urban windmill. We're also moving to a greater separation of waste. Currently, 61 per cent of all our waste gets diverted out of landfills and we're hoping to get to 70 per cent with that. We've also required all of our outdoor concessions to turn off their marquee lights during the day and we've done a whole comprehensive plan for the fair to try to reduce our electrical usage—everything from turning off the fountains at night to switching over to more efficient modes of operation like air conditioning. It's a three or four page list of initiatives.
It's been a very rainy summer in Toronto. Is there anything you're doing to plan ahead for wet weather?
There's not a lot we can do. We've got a lot of stuff under cover, so we're trying to get the message out there that there's plenty to do at the Ex on a rainy day—and it's not as crowded. But it's difficult for people to accept that message because I think they're used to making their plans based on the weather forecast.
