By Aaron Mahoney (@Mahones93 on Twitter)

Exhibition Park officials pleased with results from Whoop Up Days 2017

Aug 29, 2017 | 1:31 PM

LETHBRIDGE – Thanks to fantastic weather, and some new events and promotions, the 120th Whoop Up Days in Lethbridge is being heralded as a success by Exhibition Park officials.

CEO Rudy Friesen says when it comes to the circumstances for outdoor events, weather factors in to about 90 per cent of it.

“The weather was absolutely fabulous, so there’s nothing we can complain about,” said Friesen, adding even though the heat cost them any fireworks display, it was worth it.

He says they had planned a lot of fireworks this year for the 120th anniversary, but ultimately couldn’t share them with the public.

“With the weather the way its been here all summer, and considering what the people in British Columbia are dealing with, we’re just happy we were able to have our event,” said Friesen.

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Outside of the weather, a few other factors that played to the success according to Friesen were the concerts, the second annual Bucking and Barrels competition as well as the special pricing introduced this year. On Thursday, Aug. 24, anyone who came down to the grounds at Exhibition Park could get in for $5 until 5 p.m.

Friesen says it was a big hit considering it helped draw an additional 2,000 to the grounds that day.

“It’s something we’re going to talk about as we plan for next year. We were excited by that number, so we want to look at continuing to do that and exposing the fair to more residents of the city,” concluded Friesen.

When it comes to attracting people to the grounds, the Bucking and Barrels competition helped, but there’s more work to be done. Marketing Manager Doug Kryzanowski says the event maintained what it did last year as far as numbers, but better marketing could help.

Kryzanowski and Friesen both talked about wanting to get more people out.

“There’s a stigma around it where we need to get away from calling it a rodeo, and start calling it a show because that’s really what it is,” said Kryzanowski.

The format, a number of singles competitions as well as the head to head event where Canada takes on the United States also helps draw people from south of the border.

“A lot of the cowboys on the US side are from Montana, so we actually get a lot of people from Montana coming up here to watch it,” said Friesen, adding they’d like to see that improve in years to come as well.

The concerts at this year’s event included The Trews, Theory of a Deadman, Finger Eleven, 38 Special, and April Wine among others. Friesen says things started off slow, with people filtering in and paying at the gates once they’d already come down to the grounds, but things improved after that.

“I think it’s a weather thing, so people would wait before buying, but as the week moved on we started to see more pre-bought tickets. The attendance was fantastic though, in fact I think the Wednesday night was pretty well sold-out,” said Friesen.

Planning for next year’s Whoop Up Days is already underway, and residents can have their say about what they’d like to see next year. Organizers have sent out a survey looking for ways to improve on what was good this year, and what wasn’t.