New ride catches the eyes of fairgoers at Queen City Ex

It’s the final day of the 2019 Queen City Ex in Regina.

Many from the city and surrounding areas will be spending time at Evraz Place on Sunday jumping on rides, trying the assortment of foods and watching live music and other performances before the five-day fair is over for the summer.

One of the new sights at this year’s Queen City Ex is a ride called Star Dancer which was acquired by North American Midway Entertainment late last year.

Star Dancer made it’s debut in Regina when the fair started earlier in the week and people seem to be enjoying the new addition to the lineup of rides.

“It’s a spectacular light package, and everybody who’s getting off, the first words to come out of their mouths is ‘that was fantastic’,” said Scooter Korek, who serves as the vice president of client relations for North American Midway.

The company bought the ride in fall 2018, eventually premiering at the Miami-Dade County Fair back in March. Korek said its been a hit with the public since its first appearance.

The ride holds 16 riders in a claw hand, swinging in a pendulum motion while riders spin 360 degrees from the claw.

“This has been such a great purchase decision for us and such a great ride that for sure it’s going to be a part of our ride lineup from here on in.”

While it sounds like people can look forward to going for more swings and spins on Star Dancer next year, Sunday will be their last chance to hop on before they have to wait until next summer.

Record attendance on Thursday

Organizers and officials from both the Queen City Ex and the Saskatchewan Roughriders decided to make a bold move by combining a Riders home football game at Mosaic Stadium during Thursday’s action at the fair.

While many from the public were in the area for the Ex, Rider fans were also allowed access to the QCX grounds with their game day ticket.

The decision proved to be a good one after Regina Exhibition Association Limited (REAL) announced a new single-day attendance record for the Queen City Ex.

According to a statement from REAL, the record was broken by 14 per cent.

“We should have done this a long time ago, it was a super combination between the fair and the Roughriders, along with April Wine and Tom Cochrane,” said Korek.

Initially there were concerns from people attending either the game or the fair that there would be too much traffic or not enough places to park vehicles.

When asked if there were any issues from combining the events, Korek stated that everything was smooth sailing on their end of things.

“I would do this again in a second.”

A complete recap of this year’s Queen City Ex is expected on Tuesday.

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