Heat won’t stop the fun at Queen City Exhibition

It’s another scorcher at the Queen City Exhibition (QCX).

Friday is expected to be the hottest day for the fair, but QCX staff are ready.

Roberta Engel, the acting president-CEO of REAL, said the REAL District takes heat very seriously.

“We have lots of cooling-off places for patrons, the Brandt Centre and the Affinity Plex will be open,” she said. “There’s a new fun zone that’s in the Affinity Plex for kids to go in and parents to sit back and cool off.”

The new fun zone transforms the soccer field into a dreamland filled with bouncy castles.

A day pass at the new fun zone at the QCX will cost you $10. (Nicole Garn/980 CJME)

A day pass for the bouncy castles will cost you $10 on top of your gate ticket.

The staff working outside who can’t enjoy the air-conditioned buildings are taken care of too.

“For our staff, we are doing what we can to provide them shade,” Engel said. “We have our human resources team walking around making sure they’ve got water. We provide them with popsicles. They love the mid-afternoon popsicle delivery that we do.”

Staff are also provided sunscreen.

“We also want to make sure everybody wears sunscreen this week,” she said. “We often think that, ‘I’m not going to get burned and I’ll be in shade most of the time.’ But it doesn’t take very long in this heat to get a little bit of a sunburn.”

Roberta Engel with the REAL District said heat safety is a major concern for the QCX and there are many precautions in place. (Nicole Garn/980 CJME)

Greg (Scooter) Korek, Vice President of Client Relations at North American Midway Entertainment (NAME), takes care of the carnies.

NAME travels with a core staff of around 550 people. This year it hired around 200 people from the Regina community to help with “non-sensitive safety positions” like selling tickets.

“We have enough staff that every couple of hours we’re giving them breaks and sending them back to the living quarters so they can take a break and get out of the heat,” Korek said. “We’re very co-cognizant of our employees. We love every one of them so we try to take care of them the best we can.”

The heat doesn’t have carnie by the name of EB phased. This is his third year with the midway.

He works at a balloon-popping game.

“I have a lot of fun doing this job,” he said. “I do it because I like to make people happy and everyone wins in my game, no matter what.”

His tactic to get people to play his game is kindness and humour.

“I get people to play my game by just talking to them and having a normal conversation,” EB said. “If I want someone to play my game, I’ll say something like, ‘Hey! Even if you miss I’ll still give you a prize, just don’t tell anyone.’ Just be a friendly person and good stuff will come your way.”

He said the Canadian stops on the fair trail are his favourite.

One of the many games at the Queen City Exhibition. This game features prizes of Squishmallows. (Nicole Garn/980 CJME)