AGRIBITION WRAPS UP
Organizers planning for next year
At the close of another successful Canadian Western Agribition, event officials are already looking to next year and putting pieces in place for its 50th show, including one unintentional piece.
In February when Regina was announced as the successful bid to host the 2020 Grey Cup on Nov. 22, Agribition decided to push back its event one week to accommodate the game.
Unbeknownst to president Chris Lees at the time, by moving the date back, the 50th show will begin on the exact same day it all began back in 1971: Nov. 30.
“We are going to start the 50th show on the same day as we did 50 years ago. We didn’t know that when we planned it,” said Lees, noting he’s happy about the coincidence.
But with the Grey Cup also coming to the Queen City, Agribition won’t be the only big show in town, and Chris Lane, CEO of Canadian Western Agribition, said the event and the Saskatchewan Roughriders will once again be partnering.
This year the partnership between Agribition and the Roughriders offered free attendance for all on Monday, which Lane said resulted in a record-high opening day attendance for the show.
The same deal will be offered through the continued partnership in 2020.
“Our conversations with the Riders have been about how do we share each others’ spotlight a little bit and make sure that as many people know about both great events that are happening kind of back-to-back here,” he said.
While Lane was not yet willing to “spill all the beans” on everything happening next year to celebrate Agribition’s 50th anniversary, he did say the show will include 11 national breed shows happening at once.
“That’s going to mean pretty full barns and considerable national presence. Usually what happens is these breed shows will move their national shows around the country, so to have a collection of them all in one place at one time, that’s a pretty big start,” he said.
The theme of next year’s show will be celebrating the past 50 years, but also looking at the future and considering what Agribition should look like for the next half-century.
Lane said the show will also include a recognition program for exhibitors, some of whom have been with the show from the first year.
As for this year, Lane said he was pleased with the strong international turnout, both buyers and visitors. While final attendance and buyer numbers haven’t been totalled yet, he said, as of Saturday morning, they already had more international buyers than in 2018.
Lane said he was particularly impressed with the attention Agribition received from Scotland this year.
“That’s a direct result of the market work we did in Scotland earlier this year. Usually when we do that kind of market development, it takes more than one show cycle to see a return on that time,” he said. “It’s just been a fantastic payoff on that.”
Other events that went over well were the daily sessions of goat yoga and the Agribition Altitude Motocross held on Tuesday evening.