New rides, bizarre foods on offer at Queen City Ex

The sounds of thrill rides and the smells of deep fried food are about to the fill the air at Evraz Place.

Setup is underway for this year’s Queen City Ex.

There’s a wide variety of rides at this year’s event, including a few new ones.

“Inside our Familyland presentation, we brought a brand new Dragon Coaster that we took delivery of in June and it’s been absolutely spectacular, it’s been getting really great reviews from our midway customer for sure,” Scooter Korek, vice-president of fun with North American Midway Entertainment, said.

He said there will be fairground staples like the Polar Express and Crazy Mouse Coaster, but two longtime rides won’t be at this year’s event: the Zipper and the Fireball.

The Fireball was taken out because of the investigation into the incident where the ride malfunctioned at the Ohio State Fair, killing one person. Meanwhile, the Zipper is in a retirement of sorts.

“It’s been with us for 13 years and we just plain wore the thing out,” Korek said.

It’s not just ride-enthusiasts who can enjoy the fair, with a wide variety of food available.

“We provide, really, those midway classics,” Korek said. “We’re looking for cotton candy and popcorn and pizza and slushes.”

In addition to those fairground favourites, more adventurous items, like deep fried chicken feet and Canadian pickle bacon balls, will be available.